Tiger Woods retires but the best of the rest are coming to The Players Championship

Tiger Woods let Friday’s 5pm deadline pass without committing to next week’s Players Championship.

Nearly every other PGA Tour participant will be playing the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Led by No. 1 Jon Rahm, 19 of the top 20 players in the world golf rankings and 49 of the top 50 in the FexEx Cup rankings committed to The Players before Friday’s deadline.

Rahm has earned three of six caps this season, prior to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and has finished in the top 10 in all six. Since he won in Mexico last year, he has 10 top-10s in 15 starts and has the longest streak currently made on the PGA Tour at 24.

Rahm has made the cut in all five players he’s entered with a tie for 12th in 2019 and a tie for ninth in 2021.

Also in the mix will be past champion players Rory Mclroy (No. 3 in the world) and Justin Thomas (No. 9) and top 10 players Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Will Zalatoris, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa.

Players Championship

• March 9-12, Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass

• Purse, $25 million; first place, $4.5 million

• Tickets and parking, visit theplayers.com

• Military Appreciation Day and Riley Green Concert, March 7, 4:30pm, 17th hole

Past greats Jordan Spieth, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matusuyama and Justin Rose roam the Stadium Course, along with past Players champions Webb Simpson, Si Woo Kim, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar.

More player league coverage

Sample of absenteeism: Cameron Smith’s move to LIV Golf leaves a void at the Players Championship

Changes in progress:PGA Tour Policy Board approves field cutbacks, no cutoffs for designated events

Fasten your seat belts:A sold out Players Championship Friday car park portends a busy week

The sensational absence from the field will be last year’s champion, Cameron Smith. He and more than 20 other players are indefinitely suspended from the PGA Tour and ineligible for Tour events after upgrading to the LIV Golf League last year.

The story continues

Other players who would have been eligible for The Players had they not joined LIV Golf are past Players champions Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, and Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch, Mito Pereira, Thomas Pieters and Harold Varner III.

While Woods has emphasized since his return last year from a near-fatal car crash in 2021 that his main focus would be on playing in the major four leagues, he left the door open following February’s Genesis Invitational where he could “sprinkle” a few more events.

Woods last competed in The Players in 2019, tying for 30th, 10 shots behind winner Rory McIlroy. He had already withdrawn before the 2020 tournament due to back issues and the game was still canceled after one round due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Less than a month after the 2019 Players, Woods won his fifth Masters and 15th Major Championship at Augusta National. He played three of the four majors last year (missing the US Open), and his start at the Genesis Invitational, where he tied for 45th after a 69th in the first round, was his first start in a non-major championship since ZOZO championship 2020 .

The only player missing from the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings is England’s Ben Taylor, who is getting married this weekend. Players will have 43 of the top 50 in the world rankings and all PGA Tour winners this season, led by Rahm with three.

First Coast and Golden Isles players in the field include Billy Horschel, Keith Mitchell, Brian Harman, Russell Knox and Sam Ryder.

Players league commitments

• Alexander, Tyson

• An, Byeong Hun

• Armor, Ryan

• Baddeley, Aaron

• Barnes, Eric

• Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

• Bradley, Kegan

• Bramlett, Joseph

• Brem, Ryan

• Buckley, Hayden

• Burn, Sam

• Cantley, Patrick

• Cink, Stewart

• Clark, Wyndham

• Cole, Eric

• Conner, Corey

• Dahmen, Joel

• Davis, Cam

• Day, Jason

• Try it, Thomas

• Duncan, Tyler

• Endycott, Harrison

• English, Harris

• Finau, Tony

• Fitzpatrick, Matt

• Fleetwood, Tommy

• Fowler, Ricky

• Fox, Ryan

• Fritelli, Dylan

• Ghim, Doug

• Glove, Lucas

• Gordon, Will

• Griffin, Ben

• Griffin, Lanto

• Grillo, Emiliano

• Hadley, Chesson

• Hadwin, Adam

• Hann, James

• Hardy, Nick

• Harmann, Brian

• Hatton, Tirrell

• Henley, Russell

• Herbert, Luke

• Hickok, Kramer

• Higgo, Garrick

• Hodges, Lee

• Hoge, Tom

• Homa, Max

• Horschel, Billy

• Hossler, Beau

• Hovland, Victor

• Hubbard, Mark

• Hughes, Mackenzie

• I, Sungjae

• Jager, Stephan

• Kelly, Jerry

• Kim, SH

• Kim, Si Woo

• Kim, Tom

• Kirk, Chris

• Kisner, Kevin

• Kitayama, Kurt

• Kizzire, Patton

• Knox, Russell

• Kraft, Kelly

• Kuchar, Matt

• Laird, Martin

• Lashley, Nate

• Lee, KH

• Lee, Min Woo

• Linmerth, David

• Lipski, David

• Listen, Luke

• Long, Adam

• Below, Justin

• Bass, Shane

• Malnati, Peter

• Martin, Ben

• Matsuyama, Hideki

• McCarthy, Denny

• McGreevy, Max

• McIlroy, Rory

• McNealy, Maverick

• Merrit, Troy

• Mitchell, Keith

• Molinari, Francis

• Montgomery, Taylor

• Moore, Taylor

• Morikawa, Collin

• Mullinax, Three

• Ne Smith, Matthew

• Noren, Alex

• Novac, Andrew

• Palmar, Ryan

• Pendrith, Taylor

• Pierci, Scott

• Poston, JT

• Power, Seamus

• Putnam, Andrew

• Rahm, Jon

• Rai, Aaron

• Ramey, Chad

• Reavie, Chez

• Redman, Dr

• Riley, Davis

• Rodgers, Patrick

• Rose, Justin

• Ryder, Sam

• Schauffele, Xander

• Scheffler, Scottie

• Schenk, Adam

• Schwab, Matthias

• Scott, Adam

• Shelton, Robby

• Sigg, Greyson

• Simpson, Webb

• Smalley, Alex

• Smotherman, Austin

• Spaun, JJ

• Spieth, Jordan

• Stalling, Scott

• Straka, Sep

• Streb, Robert

• Streelmann, Kevin

• Come on, Justin

• Svensson, Adam

• Tarren, Callum

• Taylor, Nick

• Theegala, Sahith

• Thomas, Justin

• Thompson, Davis

• Thompson, Michele

• Todd, Brendon

• Come on, Kevin

• Las Vegas, Jonathan

• Wallace, Matt

• Watney, Nick

• Willett, Danny

• Wise, Aaron

• Bosco, Gary

• Wu, Brandon

• Wu, Dylan

• Young, Cameron

• Zalatori, Will

This article originally appeared in Florida Times-Union: Tiger Woods Won’t Play The Players Championship: Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy Will