Tiger Woods out of Honda Classic; will he play Arnold Palmer Invitational?

Apparently Tiger Woods still isn’t tournament-ready.

In an announcement that surprised exactly no one, Woods will not be participating in the upcoming Honda Classic.

“I’d like to play The Honda Classic – it’s a tournament in my hometown and it’s important to me – but I won’t be there unless my game is tournament-ready,” Woods wrote last week in announcing his layoff from golf. “That’s not fair to anyone. I do, however, expect to be playing again very soon.”

The question now is what “very soon” means. Woods now will not qualify for the World Golf Championship at Doral, and thus can’t play until at least the Valspar Championship on March 12, an event he’s never played. A more likely return date could be the Arnold Palmer Invitational in mid-March, an event he’s often used as a reliable tune-up for The Masters. Woods is currently ranked 66th in the world, and will continue to drop farther as a result of this withdrawal.

“He has been hitting balls every day,” Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg told USA Today. “His back is feeling stronger and stronger. He was hitting shorter shots early in the week, and now he’s getting after it. He’s putting in the effort to get back. He just does not want to do it under the spotlight of tournament play. But he is putting in a heck of a lot of time into his game.”

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.

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