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Tiger Woods removed himself from consideration for the Ryder Cup team Wednesday evening with a clear message that he is not healthy enough to play.

One day after U.S. captain Tom Watson said he trusted Woods to give him the “straight skinny” on the condition of his back injury and his game, Woods said he called the 64-year-old captain to say he would not be available.

The decision spares Watson from having to leave Woods off the team, and it eliminates a distraction over the next three weeks before Watson announces his three captain’s picks for the Sept. 26-28 matches against Europe at Gleneagles.

“I have already spoken to Tom about the Ryder Cup, and while I greatly appreciate his thinking about me for a possible captain’s pick, I took myself out of consideration,” Woods said in a statement on his website. “The U.S. team and the Ryder Cup mean too much to me not to be able to give it my best.”

That he was even under consideration was mildly surprising.

Woods’ best finish this year was a tie for 25th because of nagging back issues at the start of the year that led him to have surgery on March 31. He missed two majors, including the Masters for the first time, and did not return for three months. In the four events he played upon his return, he missed the cut twice, withdrew during the final round at Firestone and finished 69th in the British Open for his worst 72-hole result in a major.

“My primary wish is for Tiger to be healthy and competitive, and I hope that he’ll return to the game very soon,” Watson said in a statement released by the PGA of America. “Of course, I’m disappointed that Tiger Woods has asked not to be considered for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and that his health is not where he would like it to be. However, I think we can all agree that we need Tiger Woods in this great sport, and he has taken the high road by informing me early on in the selection process.

“My focus will remain on identifying three players to join the U.S. team and give us the best chance for success at Gleneagles.”

Woods said his recent back trouble was not related to the impinged nerve that led to surgery.

He missed the cut by five shots at Valhalla, and he grimaced for the final three hours of the second round at the PGA Championship.

“I’ve been told by my doctors and trainer that my back muscles need to be rehabilitated and healed,” Woods said. “They’ve advised me not to play or practice now. I was fortunate that my recent back injury was not related to my surgery and was muscular only.”

Woods said he would not return until his World Challenge in Orlando, Florida, the first week of December.

That would mean he doesn’t play the Frys.com Open or an exhibition in Argentina with Matt Kuchar scheduled for October. Woods was considering the Frys.com Open, a requirement for eight players who competed in an exhibition in Turkey two years ago.

Watson and Woods have never been close, and they only talked about his Ryder Cup situation for the first time a few weeks ago. Even so, Watson said all summer that he wanted Woods on the team provided he was healthy and playing well.

And while Woods was injured and not playing at all, Watson remained interested.

“I don’t make this comment loosely. He is Tiger Woods and he brings a lot to the team – if he has the ability to play and he’s healthy, “Watson said Monday. “He brings a lot to the team. And I’d be a fool not to consider him.”

Watson already has lost Dustin Johnson, who went 3-0 at Medinah in the last Ryder Cup, because he has taken an “involuntary leave” to face “personal challenges.” Jason Dufner, who went 3-1 in his Ryder Cup debut two years ago, has a neck injury and is out indefinitely. Dufner fell out of the top nine who automatically qualified.

Watson already has three rookies on his team – Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker and Patrick Reed – facing a European team that features Rory McIlroy and three other players from the top five in the world.

American players have three weeks to audition for Watson before he announces his picks Sept. 2 in New York.

This will be only the second Ryder Cup that Woods does not play. He missed the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla while sitting out the second half of the season following reconstructive knee surgery. That was the last time the Americans won the Ryder Cup.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Cristie Kerr knows the LPGA Championship is going to feel different, not only because it’s staged at a new golf course.

The LPGA announced in May that the tournament was getting a new name, two big partners, a lot more exposure and a change in venue outside New York City.

Hello KPMG. Goodbye Wegmans Food Markets, and goodbye to the greater Rochester area in upstate New York, a staunch supporter of women’s golf since the tournament began in 1977.

Rest assured a few tears will be shed.

“I’m definitely sad if it is (the last time),” said Kerr, who won the 2010 LPGA Championship at Locust Hill Country Club by a record-breaking 12-stroke margin. “They knew they weren’t going to get major status forever. All the players on the tour were hoping they would remain. It’s one of the best tournaments on tour, even if they weren’t a major. It’s up to them, but that would be really sad.”

Next year’s tournament will be called the Women’s PGA Championship. It will be the first women’s major run by the PGA of America and staged at Westchester Country Club in the northern suburbs of New York City. It will be televised on NBC during the weekend, only the second time a tour event has been on network television.

Wegmans has been a sponsor of the tournament for more than three decades and became title sponsor in 1997 when the event needed one to survive. In 2009, when the LPGA lost the title sponsor for the LPGA Championship, one of its majors, Wegmans increased its financial commitment and brought the championship to Rochester.

But higher purses and other factors will effectively double the cost for title sponsorship, too much for the supermarket chain to consider. The purse will increase in 2015 to $3.5 million, up from $2.25 million this year.

The tournament was played at Locust Hill for 37 years. The final LPGA Championship begins Thursday at nearby Monroe Golf Club for the last time under its old name. The plan is to move it around the country.

“The ball’s in our ballpark,” LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan said. “We just have to find the next hero.”

A return to Rochester in the future is something both sides seem to want.

“It would be strange for me to say we’re not going to be back in Rochester long-term,” Whan said. “I’ve seen it happen. Rochester has just become part of our fabric. This is where we belong. You almost took it for granted that we’d be in Rochester every year.

“We need to find somebody who says Rochester is important to us, so that we can make it important to them.”

Inbee Park won last year in dramatic fashion at Locust Hill, with players having to play 36 holes on Sunday because of a first-round postponement due to rain. Park nearly squandered a one-shot lead with a final-round 75 that included bogeys on three of her last five holes. But when Catriona Matthew forced a playoff with a final-round 68, Park rallied with a 20-foot birdie on the third playoff hole to win her second straight major.

U.S. players have won the first three majors this year: Lexi Thompson took the Kraft Nabisco Championship; Michelle Wie won the U.S. Women’s Open; and Mo Martin surged to victory in the final round at the Ricoh Women’s British Open. The last time the first three majors in the LPGA were won by American players was in 1999, and not since 1992 have Americans won them all.

Wie already is out of contention for this one. She’ll miss the LPGA Championship because of an injury to her right index finger.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – There’s always plenty on the line at the season-ending Wyndham Championship – in addition to the tournament itself.

For some, it’s the last chance to play their way into golf’s postseason.

Others are trying to catch Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson’s eye and earn one of the three remaining spots on the U.S. team.

“Everybody is playing for something this week, and yeah, the field might not be as deep as some other weeks around it,” two-time winner Davis Love III said Wednesday. “But the guys that are here are here for a lot of different, very important reasons and playing hard to try to get something out of this week.

“It’s a fun week to watch.”

And a stressful week to play. Even if the players say it’s not.

Webb Simpson – a Raleigh native who played at nearby Wake Forest and lives in Charlotte – insists it “kind of feels like there’s no pressure.”

He says he’s been texting Watson and “hopefully I’ll play well the next three weeks, or at least solid golf, to make it hard for him not to pick me.”

Simpson is one of two former Wyndham winners – along with Brandt Snedeker – who came to Sedgefield Country Club in pursuit of spots on the Ryder Cup team.

Simpson, the 2011 winner, is 15th on the Ryder Cup points list while 2007 champion Snedeker is 20th. Watson will make his three captain’s picks next month.

Last year’s champion, Patrick Reed, has already secured his Ryder Cup spot, and at No. 9 on the FedEx Cup points list, is in good shape entering the playoffs.

All he has to worry about is defending his title.

With his wife carrying his clubs around this Donald Ross-designed course, Reed claimed his first PGA Tour victory here when he beat Jordan Spieth on the second hole of a playoff.

“It really jump-started my career, that’s for sure,” Reed said. “Playing really well here, and actually being able to cap it off and win, it led to me being able to play very well for almost a full year in a row and hopefully that will continue.”

Reed will join Snedeker and Simpson for a threesome Thursday afternoon. A bad sign for Reed: Nobody has won this tournament two years in a row since Sam Snead in 1955-56.

Reed last year became the latest first-time winner at the Wyndham. Four of its past five champions had never won before on tour.

Asked who might be the next to raise a trophy for the first time, Reed said “there are literally so many good golfers out here that haven’t won yet that I literally could not name just one player.

“Anyone out here, if they have a good week and they’re on their game, has a good chance of winning,” Reed said.

For the players on the playoff bubble, the focus isn’t necessarily on winning but on prolonging their season by at least one more week. The FedEx Cup playoffs begin next week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Among those on the bubble: No. 120 David Toms missed the playoffs last year and No. 124 Jhonattan Vegas hasn’t made the postseason since 2011.

If the season ended now, No. 125 Paul Casey would hold the final postseason spot while No. 126 Sang-Moon Bae, No. 127 Charlie Beljan and No. 128 Greg Chalmers would be on the outside looking in.

And Love – the 2012 Ryder Cup captain who won this tournament in 1992 and 2006 – was at No. 161 on the playoff points list. He likely needs to finish first or second to make it to next week.

“There’s a lot of guys playing for something, playing to keep their card,” Love said. “Obviously, the pressure is not on me to keep my (PGA Tour) card as much as for pride. I want to finish in the top 125. I don’t want to finish outside of it.”