WORLD number one Dustin Johnson withdrew from the Masters just moments before he was due to start his first round at Augusta National yesterday.
Johnson looked set to tee off shortly after 2pm local time despite the back injury he suffered in a “serious fall” in his rented house on Wednesday afternoon.
However, the US Open champion then left the first tee and headed into the clubhouse, leaving Bubba Watson and Jimmy Walker to tee off in the final group.
Johnson had earlier gone through a short initial warm-up on the range before receiving treatment, the 32-year-old then returning to the range and appearing more at ease as he hit shots under the watchful eye of coach Butch Harmon.
Johnson, who had won his previous three events, said: “It sucks. I want to play. I’m playing the best golf of my life and to have a freak accident happen yesterday afternoon, it sucks really bad.
“I have been worked on all morning and obviously I can take some swings, but I can’t swing full, I can’t make my normal swing and I didn’t think there was any chance I could compete.”
Johnson said that the accident happened when he was heading outside to move his car before his son Tatum got back from daycare.
“I was wearing socks and slipped and went down the three stairs,” he added. “The left side of my lower back took the brunt of it and my left elbow is bruised as well.”
On the course, Danny Willett suffered a nightmare start to the defence of his title.
Willett, who has struggled for consistent form since claiming his first major title 12 months ago, hit a wild opening drive into the trees to the right of the first fairway and needed two shots to escape.
The 29-year-old found the green with his fourth shot and two-putted for a six, making him the first defending champion to start with a double bogey since hole-by-hole records began being collected in 1983.
A similarly wayward drive on the par-five second, which played the easiest hole on the course in 2016, cost Willett another shot and left him five off the pace being set by Ryder Cup team-mates Thomas Pieters and Andy Sullivan.
Pieters had raced to the turn in 32 with birdies on the second, fourth, fifth and eighth, despite swirling winds making scoring difficult.
The 25-year-old Belgian also picked up a shot on the 10th to reach five under, but then bogeyed the 11th and double-bogeyed the 12th after finding water off the tee.
That dropped him back to two under alongside Sullivan, who had covered the front nine in 35 before making a birdie on the 12th in the group ahead.
Former champion Jordan Spieth suffered more misery with a second quadruple bogey in his last two rounds at Augusta National.
The 23-year-old ran up a quadruple-bogey nine on the 15th.
Spieth’s approach to the par five span back off the green into the water and after taking a penalty drop, he hit his fifth shot over the back and followed up with a poor chip and three putts from 30 feet.
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