Tiger Woods not playing Houston Open ahead of Masters Tournament

Tiger Woods will not compete in next week’s Houston Open, his manager, Mark Steinberg, confirmed to GolfChannel.com.

Woods suggested last week at the Zozo Championship that he was considering adding the Houston event to his schedule to prepare for next month’s Masters.

“We’ll see how this week goes and make a decision from there,” he said at Sherwood Country Club.

Despite finishing tied for 72nd out of 77 players, Woods decided not to play the Houston event, which he’s never played before. The defending Masters champion said on Sunday at Sherwood that he has plenty of room for improvement before the year’s final major.

“I did not drive the ball and didn’t hit my irons close enough consistently,” he said. “The only thing I can take out of this week that I did positively, I feel like each and every day and pretty much every hole is, I putted well. I feel like I rolled it great.”

Woods has historically not played the week before the Masters and he took almost a month off before winning his fifth green jacket last year.