It's depressing enough when that happens, but when it's at the tail end of the season and you're desperate to get a few more rounds in before the leaves start to fall and the nights really close in, it's even worse.

But we have to be thankful for small mercies, and at least we know the Ryder Cup is just a week or so away, and whatever elements get thrown at us, we have three days of absolutely top class armchair entertainment to look forward to.

I was going to say we'll be able to see the best players in the world in hand to hand combat against each other, but that's not quite the case.

As we all know, Tiger is missing, and so for obvious reasons is Vijay Singh, who is cruising to victory in the US's season-dominating FedEx Cup series, and Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Adam Scott will also be otherwise engaged.

But what about this week's respective tour event winners? Surely, they'll be gracing the green and pleasant fairways in Kentucky?

Er, no they won't actually.

The European Masters in Switzerland went to unknown Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin, while the US event, the BMW Championship in St Louis, went to enigmatic Colombian Camilo Villegas, he of the dodgy haircut and contortionists's method of lining up putts.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that a world class field won't be doing battle, merely that a lot of current top players won't be there.

That said, it should still be a classic confrontation, even though both Azinger, with that bizarre decision over asking Woods to address the US team in the build up to the action, and Faldo with his increasingly moody press conferences, hardly inspire confidence for their respective sides.