MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Tiger Woods and third-ranked Phil Mickelson were notable absentees when the field for next week's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship was announced by the PGA Tour on Friday.
Woods, a triple winner of the event, is taking an indefinite break from golf to try to repair his marriage after admitting in December he had cheated on his wife.
He has given no timetable for his return and was never likely to compete next week in Arizona.
Fellow American Mickelson said last month he would skip the Match Play to take a family holiday.
Mickelson's wife and his mother were diagnosed with breast cancer last year, forcing the left-hander to limit his 2009 playing schedule.
Fourth-ranked Lee Westwood of Britain, American Jim Furyk (fifth) and Germany's Martin Kaymer (sixth) are the other top seeds in their respective brackets for the first World Golf Championships (WGC) event of the season.
(Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Whistler, Canada, editing by Tony Jimenez)
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