Is Tiger Woods playing 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational? 'My heart is not into practicing'

USA Today

05-03-2025

Tiger Woods still doesn't sound ready to make his 2025 PGA Tour debut with only about a month left before The Masters.
Woods returned to TGL action on Tuesday, participating in the final match of the season for Jupiter Links GC in the new virtual golf league he co-founded along with Rory McIlroy and other investors. Afterwards, Woods offered a glimpse into how little golf he has played while grieving the sudden death of his mother last month.
'This is the third time I've touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven't really gotten into it,' Woods said Tuesday after his team lost to Atlanta Drive GC and didn't qualify for the TGL playoffs. 'My heart is not into practicing right now. I have so many other things to do with the Tour. Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I'll start looking at the schedule.'
Those comments come in the midst of the PGA Tour calendar ramping up, beginning with the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week at Palmer's Bay Hill Golf Course and The PLAYERS Championship next week at TPC Sawgrass near PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. But Woods could be a long way off from playing in a professional golf tournament for the first time since The Open Championship last July.
Here's an update on Woods' status for this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational and his schedule moving forward on the PGA Tour:
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Is Tiger Woods playing at the Arnold Palmer Invitational?
No. Woods is not playing at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational this week, although 47 of the top 50 golfers in the world rankings will be competing at Bay Hill beginning with Thursday's first round.
Woods has a prolific record at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with eight first-place finishes in 18 career appearances — including a stretch in which he won the tournament four years in a row (2000-2003).
When will Tiger Woods play next?
The answer to this question became even more uncertain after Tuesday's TGL finale.
Given the lack of practice Woods cited and the obvious toll his mother's death has taken on him, his appearance at The PLAYERS Championship since 2019 next week seems unlikely. There are three more tournaments — the Valspar Championship, the Texas Children's Houston Open and the Valero Texas Open — before The Masters starting on April 7.
Woods has only once played the Valspar (2018) and Texas Open (1998) during his career. He has never played the PGA Tour's annual event in Houston.
A year ago, Woods said he aimed to play in one tournament per month. He initially committed to making his 2025 PGA Tour debut at The Genesis Invitational he hosted in February but withdrew because he "wasn't ready" yet in the wake of his mother's death. Woods reiterated during an interview at the event his goal of playing some "bigger events" in the future.
Woods only played in five PGA Tour events last season, and that included withdrawing after the first round of the 2024 Genesis Invitational due to an illness. He only made the cut at the Masters, finishing in 60th place.
It appears the next best chance to see Woods in action will be at the 2025 Masters next month, although he has not committed to playing in the season's first major yet.
Tiger Woods injury update
Woods said in December at the Hero World Challenge — a tournament he hosts in the Bahamas — that he was not physically ready and "not sharp enough" yet to compete against the best golfers on the PGA Tour following another back surgery last September. Woods underwent microdecompression surgery on his lumbar spine to relieve nerve impingement in his lower back, aiming to reduce the pain and spasms he experienced.
"I don't want to have any setbacks. Just want to keep making progress and give myself the best chance going to next year as possible," Woods said in December. "I feel like I'm getting stronger, I'm getting more pliable, but I got a long way to go to be able to compete against these guys."
Woods has since played at the PNC Championship with his son, Charlie Woods, in December. Woods also played in four matches with Jupiter Links GC in the TGL.