OVER in Florida today, Martin Kaymer, Luke Donald and Tiger Woods are among a glittering field warming up for one of the golfing calendar's finest tournaments: The Players Championship at Sawgrass.

A quick trawl through tomorrow's first round tee times is a who's who of world golf. Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els. They're all there. Well, except for one notable absentee.

The world's best golfer, Lee Westwood, had other ideas this week. Rather than look to improve on last year's solid performance at Ponte Vedra Beach, where Tim Clark beat him to the title, Westwood flew in to the North-East yesterday.

Just before lunch, the 38-year-old landed in a private helicopter on the front lawn of the Close House Hotel in Northumberland, where he officially opened the new championship Colt course there.

Along with sporting stars Alan Shearer, Joey Barton, Steve Bruce, Tony McCoy and Steve Harmison - plus a few TV personalities, including Ant and Dec - Westwood played 18 holes and also opened the new No 19 glass club house.

It was a major coup for Close House's ambitious owner, racehorse owner Graham Wylie, and highlighted his ambition for the area. But why did Westwood choose the week of the TPC at Sawgrass to stay on English soil to open a golf course?

He explained: "It's a bit unfortunate that I'm missing a massive event in the States, but you have to map out your schedule according to your priorities, and all anyone talks about when it comes to me is when am I going to win that first Major - so there's no prizes for guessing what my priority is."

Westwood returns to action at the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain next week ahead of driving for glory in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on May 26. Three weeks later he has a second major of the year at the Congressional, in the form of the US Open.

"I have to arrange my year around being in the best possible shape for the majors, and the best schedule for me unfortunately meant missing The Players' Championship," said Westwood.

"Don't get me wrong - I wish it had worked out so that I could have been at the Players. I feel I would have had a chance of doing well there. But the way I'm playing suggests I'm getting my schedule right for me.

"The form is good, but I've been playing well all year. I've just started to hole a few putts at last. When my putting was letting me down I was still finishing top 20, but that's not what you expect from the world number one. That's why I dropped down to world number two."

Westwood leads a world top ten that includes five Brits - Donald, McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Casey. Throw in German Kaymer and the United States are currently being outnumbered by the Europeans.

The presence of Woods, for so long the top talent around, at number eight, however, refuses to go away and Westwood is aware that he could soon shoot back up the rankings.

"The great thing about the world rankings is that they are reflective of form," he said. "If you don't play well you drop down them, it's as simple as that, no matter who you are. Tiger's not exempt from that.

"The one thing you do know about Tiger is that he will be practising like fury to get back to the top, and to play great golf. I know how tough it can be.

After returning from Korea a fortnight ago with the Ballantine's Championship winner's cheque in his bag, his decision to stay away from Florida may have been Sawgrass' loss. It was certainly to Close House's gain.