Nick Faldo is not at Wentworth this weekend for the Volvo PGA Championship, which he won on a record four occasions. It is only his second time to miss the flagship event of the European Tour in the last 15 years, yet the sad thing is that despite retaining a category-one exempt status, his absence has gone virtually unnoticed.

When Faldo last tussled with the famous West Course 12 months ago, he had to settle for a share of 59th place behind Colin Montgomerie. Among those who made the cut, there were five players behind him on that occasion. Last weekend in Fort Worth, just one competitor languished in Faldo's wake after four rounds of the Colonial.

Lorne Rubenstein, the distinguished Canadian golf writer, has been trying to figure out how things could have gone so terribly wrong for the Englishman since his last tournament victory in Nissan Open, three years ago. And we shouldn't be surprised that he has failed to come up with any answers.

That is the way of golf. As Faldo himself observed: "Don't you think it's amazing how hard golfers have to work to keep their game? It's so difficult to regain your confidence. And so frustrating. I can't think of any other sport where if you work hard, you don't get it."

There were no doubts and very few frustrations, however, when Rubenstein spoke to Faldo during the Irish Open at Killarney in 1991. The player was having breakfast in the Hotel Europe when the writer asked him: "Can you define the golf swing in one sentence?"

Faldo never hesitated. "Sure," he replied. "It's the turning of the upper body against the resistance of the lower body, back and through." Those were the days of boundless confidence, born of an extraordinary rapport with coach David Leadbetter - an arrangement which has long since been sundered.

We recall Faldo winning the Irish Open that year and again 12 months later, before securing a hat-trick at Mount Juliet in 1993. And in between, there was a third, glorious triumph in the British Open at Muirfield.

While building a tight yet fluid, body-controlled swing with Leadbetter, Faldo declared: "I want control, not perfection." Now he has neither. "He's missing more fairways than he's ever done and he's not holing very many putts," said Jesper Parnevik, whose career is happily going in the opposite direction.

Though there seems to be no sign of an end to Faldo's torment, he is sustained by thoughts of the venue dearest to his heart. "One of the wonderful honours we are given as past Masters champions is that we can play Augusta as honorary members for a lifetime," he said. "And that we can also play the tournament."

He went on: "I guarantee you that I will play there as long as I have a pair of pins I can stand on and can get myself there. I'll be there. And when I can't, I shall sit under an umbrella on the lawn and heckle the youngsters going past and say `At least I've done it. At least I've done it. Good luck yourself. Go you and do it'." Which can't be all that gloomy a prospect.

"None of us peckerwoods ever expected to get inside the gate, let alone out there with a club in our hands." Sam Snead, who is 88 today, on becoming resident professional at The Greenbrier, where he became the first player to shoot a tournament round of 59, in 1959.

One suspects that Henry Longhurst would not have approved of Callaway's ERC driver which, we are informed, despatches the ball huge distances. Nor of the latest superduper golf balls, which, in the hands of players like Tiger Woods, frequently forget to return to terra firma. "What a farce is this business of length," said Henry. "Golf is surely the only game, either in the United States or Britain, whose whole character has been changed solely by so-called `improvements' in the instruments with which it is played."

Warming to the subject, he went on: "None of these changes has been solicited by, or had the approval of, the ruling body. Year by year, we have altered 36,000 tees, and the Americans, I suppose, have altered 90,000, to accommodate Messrs' confounded new ball. Year by year we walk farther and farther and year by year get fewer shots in the process.

"I cannot believe that the parties concerned would alter the stands at Wimbledon, Forest Hills, Wembley and the Yankee Stadium simply to accommodate a new ball, which, when struck in the same manner, happened to go further. I rather fancy they would tell the manufacturers what to do with their new ball."

In his regular column for this newspaper two days ago, George Kimball highlighted the difficulties for the US golf authorities in attempting to protect the rules of amateur status in the face of tidy little cash pools for invitation events. The point gained rich emphasis in New York earlier this week.

On a specially-constructed, astro-turf green in Central Park, Woody Harford holed a 100-foot putt to win a competition organised by Maximum Golf magazine. The 36-year-old local was a 19 handicapper at the time of his exploit. Given that the prize was $1 million, he can hardly complain if he is now categorised as a high-handicap professional.

As the namesake of a five-time former champion, Colin Braid probably felt obliged to make a rather special arrival at this year's British Open. So, for an undisclosed sum, he has chartered the QE2 from Cunard. As he put it: "I thought the Open and the QE2 were a perfect match."

The 34-year-old British businessman has invited 100 of his friends along for the trip. But he is offsetting a considerable portion of the cost - indeed he might even turn a handsome profit - by selling a seven-night cruise to 1,500 enthusiasts at prices ranging from Stg£1,000 to Stg£7,000.

With the Open scheduled for July 20th to 23rd, we are informed that the liner will sail from Southampton on July 18th for the east coast of Scotland where it will drop anchor and function as a floating hotel off the village of Anstruther. There will be a driving range aboard ship where passengers may practise under the tutelage of the 1969 champion, Tony Jacklin.

Teaser: A player rotated his ball on the putting green to line up the trademark with the hole. He did not lift the ball, mark its position or change its position. Is there a penalty?

Answer: Yes, one stroke for touching the ball other than as provided for in the rules (Rule 18-2a). Under Rules 16-1b and 20-1, a ball on the putting green may be lifted (or touched and rotated) after its position has been marked. If the player had marked the position of the ball before rotating it, there would have been no penalty.