Padraig Harrington played the last nine holes of the Valspar Championship in the company of just his caddy after playing partner and fellow Open Champion Mark Calcavecchia was forced to withdraw through illness.

Calcavecchia and the 1989 Open Champion had been suffering with a stomach complaint for two days and felt so ill he did not want to shake Harrington’s hand on the first tee fearing passing on the illness to his double Open Championship winning colleague.

Calcavecchia managed to birdie the first hole but then doubled the fifth and seventh holes before a bogey at eight and left the course with an outward score of 40 to be eight over par through the 63 holes on the Copperhead course where he was champion in 2007.

Mark Calcavecchia forced to leave the course after nine holes.

“Mark definitely needed a medic bad as he was in a bad way saying he had been struggling with a stomach complaint for two days,” said Harrington.who “He didn’t even want to shake hands on the first tee fearing on not passing on what he had.

“He was just in a bad way today and I guess he was lucky he lasted nine holes.”

As Calcavecchia’s wife Brenda, who also caddied for her husband, confirmed he had not eaten the previous 26 hours and couldn’’t “keep anything down.”

““I thought he was going down on 9”,” she said. “

“We got a bag of saline in him and he looks a touch better.””

Calcavecchia was taken by cart to a medical tent, where she said medics led them to believe he has a “norovirus that was going around.”

While the 53-year old Calcavecchia will head back to competing on the Champions Tour, Harrington is eastbound to Orlando and this week’s $US 6.2m Arnold Palmer Invitational in suburban Orlando.