Injury forces Westwood to withdraw

Lee Westwood, Europe's Player of the Year last season, has pulled out of the £800,000 Benson and Hedges International Open at The Oxfordshire.

Westwood lasted only nine holes of the eve-of-tournament pro-am - he was playing with Ian Botham - before heading for more treatment on the upper back problem which forced his withdrawal with a round to go in New Orleans on Saturday.

The 26-year-old then decided that rather than playing through the pain his priority should be getting himself right for the US Open next month.

"The pain is all the way down my right arm," he said. "Any time I use my arm it troubles me. It aches and turns into a shooting pain.

"In hindsight I shouldn't really have played last week. If you can't give it 100% I don't think there's any reason for playing."

Westwood will have a scan in Sheffield on Thursday and manager Andrew Chandler commented: "He was obviously in a lot of discomfort again today. When he hit it in the rough he had to hit it out one-handed.

"So far nobody seems to be able to put their finger on what it is. He desperately wanted to play, but there are bigger days ahead.

"It's not career-threatening - at least I hope it's not - but it's always a concern when a guy of his ability can't play to that ability.

"He is not a whinger, so when he says there is something wrong there is. It might have been caused by carrying luggage or sleeping badly.

"But he also swings very hard for what is not that strong a body yet. There is a lot of rotation."

The absence of the world number seven makes Colin Montgomerie and Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal firmer favourites - but a lot of attention will be on Nick Faldo, who has been handed an added incentive to recapture his old form.

The 24 star names at the event were fed into a computer at the European tour headquarters - they are separated from the rest of the 156-strong field for television reasons - and by chance Faldo came out in the same three-ball as Mark James.

The pair have played countless rounds together going back over 20 years, but now James is Ryder Cup captain and the man who in August could have to decide whether Faldo wins a record-breaking 12th cap.

"Sure I would like to impress him," said an unshaven Faldo after partnering Sir Bobby Charlton in the windswept and rain-hit pro-am.

"But it's still early days for the Ryder Cup and I have a dozen more events.

"It's been a struggle and I've not put my finger on what's been going wrong yet, but I still feel I can play well and I still have majors I want to win."

Having missed six out of 10 halfway cuts this season, Faldo would be really concerned if he had lost enthusiasm for working on his game - but that is highly unlikely.

"I've never once stood on the range wondering why I was doing it," he insisted. "Not for a minute have I been bored by it."

While he has been slaving away trying to unfathom it - as has this week's defending champion Darren Clarke after a season which currently sees him 70 over par - Montgomerie comes into the tournament not having touched a club for three weeks.

That is nothing unusual for the six-time European number one and for his return Montgomerie said: "My goal is to win two of my next three tournaments.

"It would give me a hell of a lot of confidence going into the US Open and I'm keen to try to achieve it."

The statement itself revealed that his self-belief is already pretty high and he added: "If I am not confident at this game then nobody is."

Then it was on to the question of Faldo's Ryder Cup prospects and Montgomerie typically did not dodge that issue either.

He said in March that a Ryder Cup team without his former partner would be a weaker team and despite Faldo's further slump to 103rd in the world the Scot said: "Nothing will change my mind over that.

"An 80% Faldo would be on my team. In a match play format Nick Faldo stands on the first tee one-up on most people. Psychologically he is a very strong member of our team."

With no Westwood, Montgomerie is bound to carry the bulk of the gallery with him during the morning, although some are bound to want to see whether Justin Rose can finally make a cut at the 19th attempt in his professional career.

The 18-year-old from Hampshire has neglected the Challenge Tour again and accepted an invitation to return to the course where he played all four rounds as an amateur a year ago.

Rose's 44th place then obviously did not compare to his fourth place in the Open two months later, but he would happily take a repeat after all he has been through.

The crowd will have to make a choice after lunch - Faldo and James or a head-to-head between Olazabal and Clarke, who is hoping that tips from Tiger Woods' coach Butch Harmon will turn things round quickly.

Meanwhile, former Open and Masters champion Sandy Lyle plays his first European event since last August still searching for the end to a barren spell stretching back six-and-a-half years.

Lyle, who has made only three halfway cuts in eight starts on the American tour this season and is now 314th in the world rankings, makes his target purely and simply "trying to put some red figures on the board."

By that he means grabbing some birdies to boost his confidence. He has finished under par just once this year.