Scandal-hit Tiger will not play at Doral

Scandal-hit Tiger Woods was not among the 64 players announced Friday for next week’s World Golf Championships CA Championship at Doral, a main tuneup for next month’s Masters.

Woods has won the event six times, most recently in 2007 when the tournament was first played at Doral, and had never missed playing in the 8.5 million-dollar event before not signing up by Friday’s deadline.

His other triumphs in the WGC series event came in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. Overall, Woods has collected three titles at Doral.

After admitting marital infidelity in a scandal that erupted last November, Woods announced an “indefinite break” from golf in December.

In his only public remarks since, Woods said two weeks ago that he did not know when he would return.

The event marks the third event Woods typically plays that he has missed this year, joining the PGA stop at Torrey Pines and the WGC Accenture Match-Play event whose sponsor was among those to drop Woods as a spokesman.

The Arnold Palmer Invitational at Orlando, played near Woods’ home starting March 25, is the only event remaining before the Masters that Woods usually includes on his schedule.

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 major titles remains four more than Woods has captured, said Wednesday he thought Woods would play at next month’s Masters and at one tuneup event before the year’s first major event.

But if he does, it will not be at Doral, where the only players who qualified for the event but chose not to compete were Woods and Japan teen star Ryo Ishikawa, who graduates Monday from Suginami Gakuin High School in Japan.

MIAMI, Sunday AFP