‘Heart not into practising right now’, says Tiger Woods

MIAMI – It does not appear like Tiger Woods will be playing in next week’s Players Championship, if his remarks at his Tomorrow’s Golf League event on March 4 are any indication.

With the Masters looming just five weeks away, it may also prove a challenge for the 15-time Major champion to be ready for Augusta National.

Speaking at the sidelines of the tech-driven league he helped create with Rory McIlroy, Woods cited the recent death of his mother and his work on the PGA Tour policy board as to why he has not had the desire to work on his game.

“This is the third time I’ve touched a club since my mum passed, so I haven’t really gotten into it,” the 49-year-old said.

“My heart is really not into practising right now. I’ve had so many other things to do with the Tour and trying to do other things. Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I’ll start looking at the schedule.”

The March 13-16 Players Championship will be followed by the Valspar Championship.

The last official tournament Woods played was a missed cut at last July’s British Open.

The American former world No. 1, continuing to recover from a 2021 car crash, underwent a sixth back procedure in September, passed up the Hero World Challenge, then joined his son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in December.

Woods has to decide by March 7 if he is competing in the Players.

One of the things that he is involved in is the deal to reunify golf. But McIlroy, on March 5, said that the agreement does not feel any closer despite a flurry of recent meetings between the rival PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations between the two circuits had risen after US President Donald Trump hosted PGA and LIV leaders at a White House meeting in February.

However, despite optimism following that meeting and an earlier White House summit, McIlroy said that a deal did not feel imminent and suggested that progress had reached an impasse in recent weeks.

“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close, but it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer. Look, I think it takes two to tango... So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough,” he said ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Florida.

The Northern Irishman, 35, was also adamant that the PGA Tour could continue to operate successfully even without a deal that would bring the sport’s top players together outside of Majors.

“I think the narrative around golf... I wouldn’t say needs a deal. I think golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again,” the four-time Major champion added.

“But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong... the landscape might have looked a little different then than it does now over these past couple of weeks, and I think a deal would still be the ideal scenario for golf as a whole.

“But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, meanwhile, has said there were no further meetings planned between the leaders of the rival circuits.

But he remains optimistic that a deal will eventually be brokered, describing the latest meeting as a “huge step”.

“I think anything that I’ve said is consistent with what should be said when you’re in the middle of a complex discussion to try and reunify the game of golf,” he insisted.

“It doesn’t speak to my confidence level, it speaks to the moment. I view that meeting as a huge step and so I look at that very positively.” REUTERS, AFP