The 2022 PLAYERS Championship will be one star less after the PGA TOUR announced Thursday morning that Hideki Matsuyama will not be able to compete in the tournament due to an upper-body injury.
“Hideki Matsuyama is a WD from THE PLAYERS Championship due to a back injury. Patrick Rodgers replaces Matsuyama in the field.”
Matsuyama has been among the busiest players this PGA TOUR season, having started in 10 events. He's also been among the most impressive, as he is 10/10 this campaign with four top 10s and six top 25s, including two wins. He won the ZOZO Championship last October and then topped the field at the Sony Open in Hawaii back in January.
Last week, he managed to participate at the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he finished with a T-20.
According to Mark Schlabach of ESPN, Matsuyama had noted some pain in his neck and shoulders days before the PLAYERS Championship. Apparently, Matsuyama is still dealing with those issues, leaving him with the decision to skip the lucrative PGA TOUR event.
The PLAYERS Championship this year has a guaranteed purse of $20 million, which is bigger than any major's prize total. The winner of this tournament will walk away with a whopping amount of $3.6 million, a scintillating reward that Matsuyama, unfortunately, will not be able to compete for.
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