1995 Ryder Cup winner Philip Walton was one of the Sponsor’s invites for the next leg of the European Tour, The Celtic Manor Wales Open, which takes place in Newport later this week. The Dubliner was due to be part of a strong Irish field that will tee off on Thursday June 3rd. However an ongoing problem Walton has suffered with his hip forced him to miss one Irish PGA event last Tuesday and he is awaiting further advice following a scan last week. As a result he has withdrawn from the Wales Open in order not to aggravate the problem.
“It was quite painful last weekend and affected my mobility for most of the week so I thought the fairest thing was to stand down and not let the Sponsor – Dylan Matthews and his team at Celtic Manor – down by trying to play not fully fit.”
“Obviously it would have been great to play Celtic Manor in a Ryder Cup year and get the flavour of that once again,” Walton explained, “But I just have to be sensible and make sure that I don’t make things worse. There are a few other events I am due to play and don’t want to miss the season by prolonging the injury - it’s really unfortunate”
Graeme McDowell, Shane Lowry, Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane will all arrive from Spain having played the four rounds at the Madrid Masters.
Darren Clarke, Gareth Maybin dropped of the Madrid event but are due to resume action this week.
Gary Murphy and Simon Thornton will be looking to break the cycle of missed cuts this week at Celtic Manor.
