number of recognised foreign golfers but none of the local players are about to take victory for granted.

Dwayne Pearman, assistant professional at Port Royal, is one who is not about to disregard the challenge of other lesser known visitors with quality players missing such as defending champion Tim Conley and a few others. Among the top locals absent will be Robert Vallis and Scott Mayne.

This is one tournament that has escaped Pearman and it's easy to understand why he would really love to add it to his collection. He finished second in 1989, his best year ever at Belmont, and another good performance a year ago landed him fifth place.

"It would be nice to win it but my game has been up and down and there is no telling what will happen next week,'' said Pearman. "But I have always done pretty good in this tourhnament.'' The 29-year-old, who for the past two years has made consistent appearances on the PGA and Ben Hogan qualifying tour scene with moderate success, had a practise round at Belmont on Monday and parred the course -- a performance that he hopes will give him a boost going into the tournamet.

"I really think my game is coming on track now. Early on though, it wasn't too steady at all,'' said Pearman whose last competitive performance saw him finish ninth in the Bermuda Open last month.

While he doesn't intend to compete abroad any more this year Pearman claims that he has not been disheartened by the many disappointments playing abroad.

He intends to tackle a lot of the same tournaments in 1993, whenever he gets the chance to compete.

"I really want to kick back in to the tour scene next year, in the meantime I want to concentrate on getting my game back on treck,'' he said.

So far one major tournament he intends to kick off the New Year with is the Trinidad and Tobago Championships which is held in February.

Pearman was last year advised by Bermuda PGA president Kim Swan to take up playing full-time on the tour circuit in the United States in order to increase his chances of qualifying for the PGA tour. But Pearman seemed reluctant to do so without having secured a full-time sponsor.

DWAYNE PEARMAN: "I really think my game is coming on track now.''