Howell 'gutted' at Wentworth withdrawal

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Howell, a brilliant 17 under par in winning by five strokes last year, has lost his race to recover from the back and hip problems which forced him to pull out of his last two tournaments in America and a planned trip to Macau last week.

He said: "Obviously I feel gutted. It is my first big event of the year back in Britain on a course where I have won and just half a mile from where I live. It is not a nice situation, but at the end of the day I know that I have won this great title and I hope to have the chance to win it again."

He added: "I would love to have gone out and defended it, but if you are not fit you are not fit. It was always touch and go, but in the end I felt I couldn't risk it. I hit 50 shots today just as I did two days ago to see how it felt.

"I decided if I was pain-free I would play nine holes tomorrow and then the pro-am on Wednesday, but unfortunately I wasn't. I have had scans on the SI joint (sacroiliac joint at the base of the spine) and it shows signs of strain. I wanted to give it a shot and I checked with the physio, but we felt it was really too soon to play.

"At the end of the day it was a common-sense decision. The scans had shown inflammation and I didn't want to endanger my health for other big events later in the season. It was close, but not close enough."

There is better news, however, about two more of the tournament's big names.

Howell's stablemate Darren Clarke, who missed last week's Irish Open, was said by management spokesman Martin Hardy to be "95%" recovered from the hamstring injury suffered playing soccer with his sons Tyrone and Conor.

Justin Rose, meanwhile, played 18 holes on Monday after giving his troublesome back more rest.

Five of the world's top 10 - Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Henrik Stenson, Retief Goosen and Luke Donald - are in this week's field, but Adam Scott, the current number four who last month announced his intention to appear as well, subsequently withdrew "for personal reasons".