Ian Poulter was a shock withdrawal before tee off in the Honda Classic in Flordia and with his place in the field beside Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood going to a player ranked 299th in the world.

Poulter hinted something may be wrong with his health on the eve of the event when he went onto Twitter to say:  “Heading straight to bed, 101.2 temperature, freezing then sweating. I hope I can sweat it out overnight or it could be home for me.” He even took a picture of the thermometer.

But after seeking medical advice early on Thursday morning (US time) he again took to Twitter to say: “Just been for a chest X-ray got Pneumonia guys, rest time for me.”

With Poulter due to tee up alongside Woods and Westwood he used Twitter to apologise saying: “Sorry guys – never been so disappointed in pulling out of a tournament. Never felt so rough.”

Poulter was returning to competition for a first time after being bundled out of last week’s WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship but not before heavily critising SKY’s Bruce Critchley for his ‘negative’ comments.

The Englishman’s place in the $US 5.7m event was given to Argentina’s Miguel Angel Carballo, a PGA Tour rookie ranked 299th in the world.

The 32-year old Carballo has played in four events this year missing the cut in two and with a best finish of tied 30th in the Humana Challenge.

Carballo was already trailing two behind Woods and Westwood through three holes with Woods birding the first, Westwood the second but the Argentinean dropping a shot at the third.