Mickelson to miss The Players

Phil Mickelson will miss this year's Players Championship after the official field was released for Sawgrass. Mickelson is on a break at the moment, enforced or otherwise, following his comments over the potential for a Saudi Golf League, and he will not be at the PGA Tour's flagship event.

In his statement he ended it with: 'The past 10 years I have felt the pressure and stress slowly affecting me at a deeper level. I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritise the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.'

The Players has a purse of $20m but the 51-year-old, the winner in 2007, will not be part of things as he continues to sit on the sidelines. The question is now whether he will be back for Augusta, where he has prevailed three times. If he did it would be fairly reminiscent of Tiger Woods in 2010 when he made his comeback at the year's opening major. Who knows but this would be a fairly logical place to return given the way that the tournament is run and the ability to be as low key as possible in this type of situation.

But Bryson DeChambeau is in the field after withdrawing from his defence at Bay Hill this week.

In an Instagram video the American said: “Right now I’m like 90% and I don’t want to go out there and hurt myself even more and not be 100 per cent ready for the rest of the season. At this current point in time I’ve got to take another week off and I’m going to try and get back and play for The Players but as of right now I just can’t risk having it re-aggravate.

"This has been one of the hardest moments of my life because I’m not able to do much and although I can hit some golf balls, it’s not fully comfortable. It’s a bit frustrating, I want to get out there as soon as possible but it’s just not ready yet.”