English star Charley Hull has been forced to withdraw from the Aramco Team Series London at Centurion Club early on the first morning.
Hull had only played six holes at the English venue before being forced to pull out of the tournament on medical grounds after consultation with a physiotherapist.
It had been reported by Sky Sports golf commentator Richard Kaufman that Hull had been struggling with illness on Wednesday and that was the reason she could no longer take part in the tournament.
The World No.8 was playing in a group with teammates Annabel Dimmock and Christine Wolf. Hull - the squad's captain - chose close friend and compatriot Dimmock with the final pick pre-tournament, while the Austrian golfer was randomly assigned along with an amateur player.
The Ladies European Tour (LET) event is taking place between Wednesday, July 3 and Friday, July 5, with 36 teams of three professionals and one amateur battling it out on day one and two before a final day shoot-out for the pros.
After struggling with illness, Charley has withdrawn after just a few holes of her 1st round this morning. https://t.co/Re8i3J1GCwJuly 3, 2024
The Aramco Team Series London is the third of five events on the global team series, with an Asian event in October to be announced ahead of the finale in Riyadh in November.
Hull is the latest huge name to withdraw from the event after World No.1 Nelly Korda was bitten by a dog in Seattle last month and had to remain in the US for treatment and recovery purposes.
According to fellow American Alison Lee, the reigning Aramco Team Series London individual champion had been attacked outside "a random coffee shop" by an animal she didn't know - an ordeal Lee was all too familiar with having been bitten by her boyfriend's rescue dog, 'Bear' back in January.
Lee said: “She asked me a lot about what my symptoms were when I got my dog bite. My dog bite got seriously infected, so I was actually hospitalised for three days.
"But yeah, it's an unfortunate circumstance and definitely scary. She got bitten by a dog that she didn't know, it was just at a random coffee shop. I am hoping for a speedy recovery for her.”