Tiger to drop PGA Tour to Recharge

Making some place in his playing schedule Tiger Woods announced on his Web site Friday that he is skipping the season-ending Tour Championship next week in Atlanta.

The tournament is limited to the top 30 money-winners on the PGA Tour and Woods has never skipped the tour’s exclusive finale but this time it seems that the Golfer needs a resting break more than anything else.

"Playing seven out of nine weeks with an additional trip to Ireland for Ryder Cup practice was taxing both mentally and physically and I feel like I need another week away from competitive golf," Woods said. "I'm confident that this extended break will help me to recharge my batteries for the 2007 season."

After missing this tournament Woods is next expected to play the HSBC Champions, a European Tour event in Shanghai that begins Nov. 9. Later he will play the two-day PGA Grand Slam at Koloa, Hawaii and will end the year at his tournament, the Target World Challenge, Dec. 14-17 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

Woods who is missing the championship for the first time wrote, "I want to stress to everyone that missing the Tour Championship for the first time in my pro career is in no way a reflection of my feelings towards the event." Inadvertently he has never won the Tour Championship when it's been held in Atlanta.

The withdrawal of the world's no.1 ranked player will leave the Tour Championship without two of the world's top three ranked players. Number three Phil Mickelson has already confirmed that he will not take part in the invitation-only event.

An eighth player-of-the-year award has already been guaranteed by Tiger Woods for himself which is an honor decided by the vote of the players. He will also win the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest adjusted scoring average.