It has been a remarkable period in the golfing world as the fallout from the Saudi-backed Super Golf League continues.
Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau were among those who publicly came out to pledge their allegiance to the PGA Tour.
Phil Mickelson, in contrast, appears to have paid a heavy price in terms of his own reputation for some of his recent comments and for trying to use the Super Golf League as leverage “to reshape the PGA Tour”.
It is difficult to see where the Greg Norman-led Super Golf League goes from here but I don’t think this is the end – far from it.
Over the next couple of months we are going to hear a lot from the PGA Tour about the changes they are going to make to improve their product.
There has clearly been a lot of work behind the scenes to convince the world’s top players that the PGA Tour is going to be the best place to ply their trade.
This could take the form of more guaranteed money for the top players because these players have taken a stance and backed the PGA Tour.
I don’t have a problem with the players who were offered a massive amount of money to play in the Super Golf League deciding it was something they wanted to explore. They are entitled to make their own decisions.
But I didn’t like some of their justifications for these decisions.
Andrew Coltart was spot on when he described some of the top players as being tone deaf for using money as their reason for wanting to make the move.
While there are lots of people struggling financially right now, he thought it was wrong for the top players who are already very wealthy to claim they were making the move purely for financial reasons.
There are a lot of things on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour that I would like to see done differently but I also appreciate that I have been given the opportunity to make a living playing a sport I love.
The prize money and endorsements on the PGA Tour are way above what we play for in Europe but we should be very grateful for the great prize funds we compete for.
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Were the players attracted to the breakaway tour thinking clearly or were they simply thinking about money?
There is a lot going on in the world, especially over the last week, that should make these players appreciate what we have.
A lot of people are saying the Super Golf League is dead in the water but I don’t believe that for one minute.
They have already invested a huge amount of money so far so they aren’t just going to go away.
This isn’t over and I think they will proceed and maybe pay players to play in their events to enhance their fields.
The chat around the Super Golf League may quieten down for a while but I think it will return at some stage.
I still expect Greg Norman and his backers to come up with something they think can rival the main two tours.
There is no doubt that the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have upped their game as a result of this threat.
But they will need to deliver what they have promised or the prospect of losing some of the top players to a breakaway tour could quickly return.
