LEE Westwood's aspirations in the Benson and Hedges International Open suffered a cruel blow when he was forced to pull out of the tournament yesterday afternoon.

The bookies' second favourite played only nine holes of yesterday's celebrity Pro-Am at the Oxfordshire Golf Club, near Thame, before deciding that the pain from a shoulder injury was too much to bear.

There was still a lingering hope that he would play as he received physiotherapy, but by early evening it was apparent that the Worksop golfer had withdrawn.

He has gone to Sheffield today to undergo another scan and has been replaced by Spain's Francis Valera.

Westwood was forced to abandon the defence of his US Tour Title in New Orleans at the weekend with the same problem - one that is clearly not going away.

Manager Andrew Chandler said: "He comes here to win events like this, not finish 20th. He desperately wanted to play because the B&H marks the start of the British season. But I told him he has got 15 years ahead of him and he doesn't want to make a mess of it this week." The Pro-Am was won by Mathias Gronberg with Mike McGuire, Steve Booth and Ken Suzuki. They carded 128 and were followed in by Paul Broadhurst with Willie Thorne. Tony Johnstone, playing with John Parrott MBE, came third.

Last year's champion Darren Clarke joined up with the former England football manager Glenn Hoddle and they finished 27th.

Clarke said afterwards: "Glenn was pretty good. He played some good holes and he played some bad holes. But he's a very nice guy and good to play with. I asked him a few questions but Fulham wasn't at the top of the list!"

Hoddle kept a low profile and, after obliging several autograph hunters, he left the course.

One 14-year-old golf fan had a memorable day. He asked Sir Bobby Charlton for an autograph in the car park and joked that should Bobby ever need a caddy, then he would be available.

Charlton promptly handed over his clubs and told the lad to get on with it!

Story date: Thursday 13 May

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.