Is Tiger Woods playing in the 2024 Grant Thornton Invitational? Availability and schedule explored

The final field for the 2024 Grant Thornton Invitational is locked in. However, Tiger Woods is not among the 32 players competing in the second edition of the exhibition event.

The 2024 Grant Thornton Invitational will take place at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples from Friday, December 13, to Sunday, December 15. The purse for this mixed-team event will be $4 million, with the winning team evenly splitting a $1 million prize.

Fifteen-time Major champion Woods has been out of action since missing the cut at the Open Championship in July. He then underwent back surgery in September and has since been in the rehabilitation process. Last week, he was spotted at the Hero World Challenge but wasn't fit enough to compete.

Although Tiger Woods is not playing in the Grant Thornton Invitational, the field will feature several notable golfers from both the PGA and LPGA Tours. Nelly Korda, Tom Kim, Jason Day, Tony Finau, Atthaya Thitikul, and Lydia Ko are among the popular names in action.

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"I'm still not there" - Tiger Woods sheds light on his health status

Last week, during the pre-event press conference of the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods shed light on his fitness stating that he wasn't tournament ready yet.

"I'm still not there," he said. "These are 20 of the best players in the world and I'm not sharp enough to compete against them at this level. So when I'm ready to compete and play at this level, then I will."

Last year, Tiger Woods had expressed hopes of playing at least one event per month this season. However, it didn’t turn out that way, and he could play just five events. During the press conference, he explained the reason behind it.

"I didn't think my back was going to go like it did this year," he continued. "It was quite painful throughout the end of the year and hence I had another procedure done to it to alleviate the pain I had going down my leg."

"So whether my commitment going forward is once a month, yeah, I could say that all over again, but I truly don't know. I'm just trying to rehab and still get stronger and better and feel better, really give myself the best chance I can going into next year," he added.

The 82-time PGA Tour winner played in five events, including all four Majors this year. Although this was the first time he had done so in five years, his performance wasn’t much to boast about. While he made the cut at the Masters Tournament for a record 24th straight time, he missed the weekend in the remaining three.