Woods Among Multiple Big Names To Skip WGC-Mexico

The first World Golf Championship of 2020 is here but the likes of Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose are giving it a miss

Woods Among Multiple Big Names To Skip WGC-Mexico
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The first World Golf Championship of 2020 is here but the likes of Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose are giving it a miss

Woods Among Multiple Big Names To Skip WGC-Mexico

The much-loved WGC-Mexico Championship returns to our screens this week and, as always with World Golf Championships, a stellar field has been assembled.

Players teeing it up at Chapultepec GC vying for the lion's share of the $10.5m purse include World No.1 Rory McIlroy, No.3 Jon Rahm and defending champion Dustin Johnson.

However, something that can't really be ignored is the number of big name stars choosing to skip the event.

Tiger Woods is missing, as are Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Henrik Stenson.

Patrick Cantlay is also out injured.

It's a great chance for players to bank much-needed Ryder Cup, Official World Golf Ranking and Olympic points.

One thing they perhaps don't need is the money, evidence in the fact that they're skipping a no-cut event that last year offered $1.745m to the winner and over $48,000 to the last-place finisher.

“I just felt like I wasn’t going to be ready for next week,” Woods explained at the weekend.

“I’m a little run-down, and playing at altitude as well isn’t going to help that. So take the week off.”

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Woods will be missed in Mexico this week at an event that has really captured the hearts of golf fans since the tournament moved there from Doral in 2017.

Let's hope this week's event can still be an entertaining one, which it surely will be with the likes of McIlroy, DJ, Rahm and Thomas in town.

Jon Rahm has the chance to usurp McIlroy at the top of the rankings if he wins whilst McIlroy has a couple of points to prove after two close calls in his first two starts of 2020.

He also finished runner-up here to Dustin Johnson in 2019.

The new schedule changes that were brought in last year have seen wholesale changes to how players plan their years and with the Olympics this year, players are having to be more brutal than ever.

It looks like the WGC-Mexico may have beared the brunt of what is a very busy 2020.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV