Tiger Woods, the four-time Masters champion, has ruled himself out of next week's competition at Augusta National due to his back injury.
The 40-year-old has been out of action since August and has undergone two rounds of surgery in a bid to cure the problem.
But the first major tournament of 2016 comes too soon for Woods, who won the green jacket in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005, and although he says his recovery is "making progress", he has put no timescale on his return to action.
He said in a statement on his website: "After assessing the present condition of my back, and consulting with my medical team, I've decided it's prudent to miss this year's Masters.
"I've been hitting balls and training daily, but I'm not physically ready. I've said all along that this time I need to be cautious and do what's best for my long-term health and career.
"Unfortunately, playing Augusta next week wouldn't be the right decision. I'm absolutely making progress, and I'm really happy with how far I've come, but I still have no timetable to return to competitive golf."
Despite not entering the competition, Woods will still travel to Augusta to attend the Champions Dinner on Tuesday night.
"I'd like to express my disappointment to Billy Payne, the Augusta National membership, staff, volunteers and patrons that I won't be competing," he added. "It's a very important and special week to me, and it's upsetting to miss it. I do plan to attend the Champions Dinner and see a lot of old friends.
"I'd like to thank the fans for their concern and support. The last few years have been difficult, but I have the best fans anywhere, and I want them to know that."
It is the second time in three years that Woods has missed the tournament after also pulling out in 2014 with a back injury. He finished tied-17th last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here