Monday, 20 November 2017:
It's the missing piece of Australian golf's triple crown but it seems unlikely the once-great Masters will be restored to the summer calendar for at least five years.
Two big weeks are about to get underway on the home scene as Jason Day makes a rare appearance at the Australian Open in Sydney, where world No.2 Jordan Spieth will defend his title from Thursday.
Then Adam Scott and Marc Leishman come up against Sergio Garcia at the Australian PGA on the Gold Coast.
However the third triple crown event, the Australian Masters, is missing for a second year, with no clear word on its status.
Scrapped in March last year, the tournament's website still carries the hopeful statement the tournament's owner, global management company IMG, released when it cancelled for 2016.
It said it was "re-imagining its Australian Masters event to ensure the delivery of a world-class experience" and promised to "unveil its plans for the event in the coming months".
The silence ever since has been deafening.
The PGA Tour of Australasia has had no update, likewise Golf Australia (GA) has heard nothing new.
IMG vice-president David Rollo was expected to address the future of the tournament some time during the week of the Australian Open.
Certainly, the Masters is missed
"It was a great event for a long time. If it could be resurrected, that would be great for tournament golf," said GA chief Stephen Pitt.
But Pitt suspects that, with the Victorian government having invested heavily in the Presidents Cup in 2019 and the return of the Australian Open to that state in 2020 and 2022, it may be difficult to revive any time soon.
The Masters was played exclusively at Huntingdale until 2008 before being moved around several other sandbelt courses.
Established in 1979, the tournament boasts an honour roll featuring Tiger Woods, six-times champion Greg Norman, Ian Baker-Finch and fellow major winners Mark O'Meara, Michael Campbell and Justin Rose.
The concept of an Australian triple crown - winning the Open, PGA and Masters titles all in one season - was a relatively recent one.
But it attracted huge attention when Robert Allenby achieved the feat in 2005, the only player to do so.
Likewise it generated plenty more headlines when Adam Scott went desperately close four years ago, winning the first two legs only to bogey the 72nd hole at Royal Sydney and allow Rory McIlroy to snatch the Australian Open title - and triple crown - from his grasp.
Peter Lonard won the Masters twice, in 1997 and 2003, the first time famously when working as a club pro as he battled to return from the lingering effects of Ross River Fever.
It relaunched a tour career that is still going.
"The event I was thinking of when I was trying to get back was the Australian Masters," said Lonard.
"I would love it to come back."
