Tiger Woods clarified a major part of his pre-Masters PGA Tour 2019 schedule Thursday.
In a Tweet, Woods said he will be playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship prior to the year’s first major at Augusta National in April.
Woods will not be playing in the Honda Classic next week at PGA National Resort & Spa in West Palm Beach, Fla., an event he referred to as his “hometown” tournament on Wednesday.
The API is set for March 7-11 at Bay Hill Club in Orlando.
Woods was a long-time resident of Windermere, Fla., next to Orlando. He has played at Bay Hill 19 times on the PGA Tour and has eight victories at Arnie’s Place. The Genesis Open, an event run by his organization for his charity, was also upgraded to “Invitational” status last week.
Given all these factors, it was extremely unlikely Woods would skip the Arnold Palmer Invitational as long as he was healthy.
The Players will take place at TPC Sawgrass on March 14-17.
Then there is the scheduling information not mentioned in Woods’ Tweet. As always with Woods, nothing is final until it’s finel.
However, Thursday’s developments mean Woods will likely miss the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook. That will be played March 21-24 (the week after The Players) as part of an expanded Florida Swing this year.
Instead, Woods will probably participate in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event set for March 28-31 in Austin, Texas
If Woods skips the Valero Texas Open the following week, also expected, that would give him a two-week break before the Masters.
Woods played both the Honda and Valspar during his his Masters’ run-up in 2018. The move of The Players to March and Woods’ inclusion in the WGC-Mexico Championship and upcoming WGC-Dell dictated the changes this year.
