And then there were three. Yes, Stephen Ames' appearance at the Kemper Open last week reduces our list of players yet to turn up for a tournament in the 1999 Golf Masters to three: Ronan Rafferty, Mark Davis and Matthew Goggin.

In a tournament won by rookie Rich Beem, Ames tied for 44th u3,813) in what was his first Tour appearance since last October. Now lest his 411 managers think their man has been busy sunning himself somewhere in his native Trinidad and Tobago since October, they should know that he has been doing his best to try to win them a few bob on the US Tour - it's just he's having trouble getting a visa to play there.

Until a week ago, he had been stuck in Calgary, where he now lives with his Canadian wife, because he wasn't allowed entry back in to the US. It seems that the 1996 Benson and Hedges International winner is still paying the price for telling US immigration officials that he was American when he entered the country in 1991.

The "mistake" was spotted and he was banned from the US for five years, leading to his appearance on the European Tour. Ronan Rafferty, meanwhile, is still recovering from injury and can be spotted on Sky Sports these days working as a studio analyst, and Matthew Goggin is doing his 59 managers proud on . . . the US Nike Tour (he tied for second in week 11 at the Dominion Open, when his Golf Masters' employers might have preferred if he had turned up at the Benson and Hedges International).

Yes, the Australian, who qualifies to play on the European Tour this season (but last played at the Heineken Classic in Perth in January), has opted to play in America the past few months. And Mark Davis? Not even the European PGA press office can tell us where the former English Amateur champion has got to ("last we heard he was injured"). His Tour exemption expires at the end of the season; his 78 managers would be grateful if he put in an appearance before then.