Colin Montgomerie has made a late decision to pull out of this week's BellSouth Classic in Atlanta.
The eight-time European number one last week slumped to the worst run of his long career, missing a fourth successive cut at the Players Championship in Florida.
Now his next appearance will be in the Masters at Augusta next week – a tournament he failed to qualify for last April and where he missed the cut the two previous years.
Montgomerie had rounds of 72 and 76 at Sawgrass to bow out by four shots, finishing joint 99th of the 144-strong field.
It followed early exits at the Desert Classic in Dubai, Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth and Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, where he crashed to a second round 77.
While he decided not to play this week, Davis Love is a late entry for the final warm-up event for the Masters.
Love was to have taken the week off but that changed when he suffered an amazing collapse after leading the Players Championship.
Having opened with a seven-under-par 65 the former US PGA champion followed with an 83 and by taking a quadruple-bogey nine on his final hole finished alongside Montgomerie on four over.
Montgomerie's withdrawal leaves 14 Europeans at the BellSouth Classic, including Jose Maria Olazabal, who lost a play-off to Phil Mickelson last year, David Howell, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell and Swede Henrik Stenson, who finished joint third on Sunday.
