Woods Confirms He Won't Play in Arnold Palmer Invitational


Tiger Woods won't be playing in next week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, an event he's won a record-tying eight times.

On his website, Woods stated Friday, "I spoke to Arnold today and told him that I will not play in his tournament this year. I'm sorry I won't be in Orlando next week, but I know it will be a really successful event.

"I've put in a lot of time and work on my game and making strides, but like I've said, I won't return to the PGA Tour until my game is tournament ready and I can compete at the highest level.

"I hope to be ready for the Masters, and I will continue to work hard preparing for Augusta. I want to thank everyone again for their support."

Woods also missed the Palmer event last year as he awaited surgery on his back. He hasn't played at Bay Hill since his eighth victory in 2013.

The only other tournaments before the Masters on April are the Valero Texas Open and Shell Houston Open. Woods hasn't played the Valero event since 1996 and has never competed in the Houston tournament. If he doesn't tune up in one of the Texas events he'll go into the first major of the year having played just 47 holes in 2015. The last time he played on Tour was February 5 at Torrey Pines.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, told ESPN.com: "He's grinding. He's really, really working. Everyone knows he's working toward the Masters, he wants to play there. But having said that, he really wanted to play in the worst way [at Bay Hill]. He wanted to play at Honda."

Woods' last title - the 79th of his career - came in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013. That win tied Woods for the all-time most wins in the same event with his victories at Bay Hill and with Sam Snead in the Greater Greensboro Open.

The most recent of his 14 major titles came at the 2008 U.S. Open, with the last of his four Masters victories coming in 2005.