June 21, 2012 - 2:56 PM
SAINTE-JULIE, Que. - Mark O'Meara is the latest big name to pull out of the 2012 Montreal Championship.
He withdrew from this week's 54-hole tournament after competing in a pro-am Thursday at Richelieu Valley Golf Club. The 1998 Masters and British Open champion hoped to return to action after being sidelined for three months with a nagging cartilage injury to his lower right ribs.
"I just made the call on the third-to-last hole. I said, 'I don't think I can go,'" O'Meara said. "So, you know, it's a long trip. It's a big trip for me to come all the way up here and try to play and then realize I've got to pull out now.
"I'm not really happy about it to be honest with you, but it's something that I'm dealing with so it's not the end of the world."
Nick Price, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman and Kenny Perry all bowed out of the tournament — the only Canadian stop on the PGA's Champions Tour — earlier in the week.
Price and Couples withdrew because of injuries. Lehman and Perry did not travel to Montreal because of personal reasons.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012