Tiger Woods to Skip Honda Classic, Play Arnold Palmer, Players Championship

Tiger Woods has informed his legion of fans that there will be one less opportunity for them to follow him around the course this season. 

Due to a crammed spring schedule, Woods has decided to skip the Honda Classic, set to take place from Thursday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, March 3.

It's no secret that Woods' ability to play a packed schedule has lessened as he has gotten older and his back has required four surgeries, but nothing was official until Thursday morning when Woods tweeted to his over 6 million followers.

Woods is currently playing in the WGC-Mexico Championship—his second tournament in a row—where he was tied for 23rd place through seven holes in the first round. It makes sense, then, that Woods would skip next week's Honda Classic in order to best prepare for back-to-back weeks of the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship in early March.

The 43-year-old will make his 19th career appearance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods has won the tournament eight times, tying him and Sam Snead for most wins in a single PGA Tour event. Woods finished tied for fifth at Bay Hill last year.

"I always love playing at Bay Hill," Woods said on Thursday, according to PGATour.com. "I have such great memories of Arnold and am happy to be back for the 19th time. Of course, it would be great to win and set a new record, especially here, but that's for me to do on the course." 

Should Woods win, he will more than likely cause a scene—as he did last September when he won the Tour Championship, securing his first PGA tournament win of any kind since August 2013. 

So far this season, Woods has not come close again to tasting that glory as he has tied for 20th at the Farmers Insurance Open and tied for 15th at the Genesis Open—which was just this past Sunday.

Perhaps if The Players Championship hadn't been moved up to March from its usual May date, Woods would have tried his hand at the Honda Classic. As it stands, he is trying to succeed in smaller doses.