Thursday 16 March 2017 13:22, UK
Danny Willett’s Masters preparations have suffered a setback after he was forced to pull out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The world No 14 was due to tee off alongside Charl Schwartzel and Ben Martin for the opening two rounds at Bay Hill, but withdrew ahead of his 8.11am tee time due to illness.
Willett tweeted: "Really sad to have to withdraw from the @APInv I've been up all night with terrible sickness.
"Not ideal, but felt it worse to take a spot from the first reserve if I wasn't able to finish. Come Sunday I'm sure there'll be a great champ once again."
The Englishman was replaced in the field by American Blayne Barber, with Willett now scheduled to only make one more tournament appearance ahead of his Masters defence.
Willett has struggled to find form during the early part of the year, finishing tied-fifth in Malaysia after taking a three-shot lead into the final day and missing the cut at last month's Honda Classic.
He then finished 69th in a 77-man field in the WGC-Mexico Championship, with his only other scheduled start before Augusta due to be next week's WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Watch the Arnold Palmer Invitational throughout the week live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf
