Injury has forced international stars Fred Couples and Vijay Singh to withdraw from their upcoming Australian golf tournaments.

Both Couples, who was scheduled to line up at the Australian Open in Sydney and Singh, who was to star at the Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola at the Hyatt Coolum have succumbed to back and knee injuries respectively that have rendered them unable to play.

For Couples, a former World Number 1 and 1992 US Masters champion, a lower back injury that makes it impossible to sit down for extended periods flared up making the long plane trip to Australia impossible.

“I was immensely looking forward to coming back Down Under and playing in such a prestigious Event like the Australian Open,” said a disappointed Couples from his base in the US.”

“I hope to be able to do so in the very near future.”

Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt said, “We are disappointed that Fred will not be able to join us in Sydney and wish him a speedy recovery.”

“We have a fantastic field assembled and can’t wait to see all players take on New South Wales Golf Club in an Australian Open for the first time.”

For Singh, the announcement came after he underwent surgery on a knee injury on Wednesday.

During a recent trip to Japan the three time Major winner and former world number one found himself suffering immense pain in his knee with each step and flew directly to Los Angeles to have floating cartilage removed from his knee.

Whilst his doctors are pleased with his progress, Singh has also withdrawn next week’s Chevron World Challenge in California and is unable to play for the remainder of the year.

“We are all obviously very disappointed that Vijay isn’t able to play in the PGA Championship and we know he was looking forward to returning to play in Australia after such a long absence. His health is the most important thing though and we hope he recovers quickly and send him our best wishes,” said Max Garske, CEO of the PGA of Australia.

“We have the cream of Australian golfing talent as well as stars from the US and Asia for our season ending event in Coolum and are looking forward to an exciting finale where our Order of Merit Champion for 2009 will be crowned.

Both the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola boast Australia’s greatest golfing talents including Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott, Michael Sim, Mathew Goggin, Marc Leishman, Stuart Appleby and Greg Chalmers. The international contingent includes crowd favourite John Daly and fellow Americans Steve Marino, Kevin Stadler, Bryce Molder and players from Korea and Japan as well as Greg Norman who will attend the Australian Open to host a children’s clinic on Saturday December 5 and will be commentating on Network Ten, the host broadcaster of both events.

The Australian Open will be held from 3-6 December at New South Wales Golf Club.

The Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola, is the final event on the Australasian and OneAsia calendars for 2009 and will be held from 10-13 December at Hyatt Regency Coolum in Queensland.