Troubled former Open champion John Daly, currently serving a six-month ban from the US Tour, is no longer in the field for next week's Dubai Desert Classic.
But the tournament will see the European Tour debut of Erik Compton, the American golfer who last year underwent a second heart transplant operation.
Daly had originally planned to play the entire three-week Middle East swing on the circuit, but told organisers of the Abu Dhabi Championship last week that his game was "not yet up to shape" and it now remains to be seen when he will next play.
He revealed the PGA Tour suspension himself last month, saying he wanted to go public to let fans and tournaments know that he wasn't abandoning them by taking his game to Europe.
In October police said that the 42-year-old, whose world ranking is now down to 744th, appeared intoxicated outside a Hooters restaurant in North Carolina and he was taken to jail to sleep it off.
Compton was diagnosed at age nine with cardiomyopathy, an enlarging of the heart which hinders its ability to pump blood.
Three years later, in 1992, he had his first transplant and went on to play in the 2001 Walker Cup before turning professional.
He has received special permission from the PGA Tour to use a golf cart and to continue taking banned anti-rejection pills, but after a heart attack in October 2007 it became clear he would need another transplant. The surgery took place last May and five months later he made it through the first stage of the qualifying school in the States.
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