Karlsson withdraws from Open

Ryder Cup Swede Robert Karlsson pulled out of The Open on Wednesday less than 24 hours before he was due to tee off at Royal Lytham.

It means the field is now 156-strong rather than 157 and to accommodate the change, the first round will now start at 6.30am instead of 6.19am.

"Have got into some bad habits in my game and routine that I need to address. Taking a few weeks off," said world number 54 Karlsson on his Twitter site.

To accommodate the change, the first round will now start at 6.30am instead of 6.19am.

England's Barry Lane and American James Driscoll, who were going to play as a two-ball, will be joined by South African Garth Mulroy, while former Irish Open champion Richard Finch moves from 6.30am to 1.10pm, replacing Karlsson alongside American Mark Wilson and South African Branden Grace.

Apart from the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain, where he came through his group but failed to reach the quarter-finals, Karlsson has not had a top 10 finish all year.

His last two events were both in America and he finished 29th in them. Before that he had four missed cuts in six starts, coming 48th and 56th in the other two.

The 11-time European Tour winner stands only 30th on the race for a Ryder Cup team place with just over a month to go.