Woods, Scott highlight strong Wyndham Championship field

The struggles of two of the world's high-profile players is the Wyndham Championship's gain this week.

The year's final PGA Tour event in the Carolinas, and the final tournament before the start of the FedExCup playoffs, got a boost Monday with Tiger Woods' confirmation that he will be playing in the tournament.

The 14-time major champion and winner of 79 PGA Tour events committed before the 5 p.m. Friday deadline to keep his options open, and confirmed to tournament officials Monday that he'll be teeing it up this week for the first time in the Wyndham at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

CONFIRMATION: Tiger Woods will play Wyndham

He missed the cut to the final two rounds of the PGA Championship on Saturday morning.

Woods isn't the only big-name player hoping to find his game this week. Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion who is still ranked 11th in the world despite a disappointing season that included a missed cut in the PGA Championship this past weekend, joined a field Friday that tournament director Mark Brazil called the best in the recent history of the 76-year tournament.

The field includes six former world No. 1s, 16 major champions, eight past Wyndham winners and many of the game's promising young rising stars.

IN THE RUNNING: How the Ryder Cup team looks after PGA Championship

Those entered include world No. 15 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 20 Brooks Koepka, No. 21 Martin Kaymer, No. 22 Billy Horschel, No. 27 Paul Casey, No. 28 Branden Grace, No. 29 Bill Haas, No. 30 Brandt Snedeker, 2011 champion Webb Simpson and fellow major winners Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Charl Schwartzel, Jason Dufner, Stewart Cink and Justin Leonard.

Also in the field are former world No. 1 Luke Donald, past Wyndham winners Ryan Moore, Harris English, Davis Love III, Carl Pettersson, K.J. Choi and defending champion Camilo Villegas, and rising stars Justin Thomas, Ollie Schniederjans, Patrick Rodgers, Daniel Berger, Chesson Hadley and Cameron Smith

Woods' appearance is sure to give the event more attention, publicity and attendance.

PHOTOS: PGA Champion Jason Day sets major record

Woods' PGA Tour season will essentially be over if he doesn't finish at least alone in second this week.

In 10 events this year he has missed four cuts and withdrew once, his only top-20 finish is a tie for 17th at the Masters, and he has missed the cut in the past three majors.

Woods is 187th in the FedExCup standings and only the top 125 after this week advance to the first playoff event, The Barclays next week in New Jersey. He is 292 points behind Schwartzel at No. 125. A solo second awards 300 points so he'd have a chance with that.

If he fails to make The Barclays field he would likely have to wait seven weeks for the 2015-16 season to start at the Frys.com Open from Oct. 15-18, though he may opt to play overseas.

Scott missed the PGA Championship cut by four shots with a 7-over 151.

Though the Australian has finishes of fourth and 10th in the U.S. Open and British Open, as well as ties for 12th and fourth in a pair of World Golf Championship events, those are by far his best finishes in 13 events this season and he is just 91st in 2014-15 FedExCup points.

Woods is scheduled to play in Wednesday's pro-am at 7 a.m. with Los Angeles Clippers star Chris Paul, an alumnus of nearby Wake Forest University, resulting in public parking for the day being moved from a smaller location to the Greensboro Coliseum Complex parking lot, where it will remain through Sunday.

This article was written by Alan Blondin from The Sun News and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.