Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama withdrew from the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play occasion on Friday citing a recurring neck damage.

Matsuyama cut up his opening two matches this week at Austin Country Club and wanted to beat Max Homa on Friday to power a playoff and decide who superior to the knockout rounds.

As a results of Matsuyama’s withdrawal, world quantity six Homa advances out of the group stage with a 3-0-0 document.

“I experienced some stiffness in my neck this morning while warming up on the range, preventing me from making a full swing,” Matsuyama mentioned in a press release.

“As a precautionary measure, I decided to concede my match to Max and rest before moving onto the Valero Texas Open next week.”

This week’s occasion marked the primary PGA Tour begin for the Japanese world quantity 20 since his fifth-place end at The Players Championship.

Matsuyama additionally withdrew from final yr’s Valero Texas Open halfway via his second spherical with a neck damage, lower than per week earlier than he was set to start his Masters defence.