Golf's unhealthy divide rears ugly head again over LIV, The Players and Patrick Reed

It’s all really come to the surface again on the back of three things that have happened in the last week, the first being a decision by the Official World Golf Ranking about LIV Golf events, the second being a promotional video for The Players Championship featuring a strapline: “March is going to be major” and the third being some reaction to Patrick Reed winning again on the DP World Tour.

Commenting on the first of those really is like taking a dip in shark-infested waters because LIV Golf bosses and players are clearly not happy about a decision to only award points for top-ten finishes on the breakaway circuit.

I’ll come to that, but it’s already had a positive impact for Elvis Smylie, one of the game’s rising stars, and Jon Rahm, too, On the back of winning the LIV Golf season-opener in Riyadh, Smylie is up to 77 in the standings, jumping 57 spots, and the Australian left-hander will have broken into the top 50 before too long and maybe even the top 20 by the end of the year.

Riyadh runner-up Rahm, meanwhile, is up 30 spots to 67th and, given that the Spaniard always seems to be there or thereabouts in LIV Golf events, he’ll be flying high again in the world rankings as well before too long.

Resentment of OWGR, PGA Tour and DP World Tour

Without going into too much detail, the OWGR stopped short of awarding points across the board because it claims the LIV Golf events don’t currently meet “eligibility standards” and also the fact that the Saudi-backed circuit “operates differently from other ranked tours in a number of respects”.

One of the issues here, of course, is that LIV Golf players were promised this, that and the other when they signed on the dotted line for sackfuls of money and, due to certain things either not happening or happening, they now resent the OWGR, PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

It will be sticking in the throats of some as well that Brooks Koepka is now back playing on the PGA Tour without really being punished too heavily in relative terms and Patrick Reed will be returning to the US circuit as well later this year while some other big guns will have to lie on the beds they made.

Judging by the almost daily media announcements over the past few months, LIV Golf certainly doesn’t look as though it’s on its last legs, though it is not healthy that a decision to switch from 54 holes to 72 holes hasn’t proved universally popular among the circuit’s star players.

“It’s definitely changed away from what we had initially been told it was going to be,” Bryson DeChambeau, the tour’s star man, told Today’s Golfer and, make no mistake, without him LIV Golf is almost certainly dead in the water.

As for a fresh debate having been stirred about whether or not The Players Championship should become the game’s fifth major, can we please stop that now because, quite frankly, there is absolutely no need for it and it’s stupid for the idea to be floated when LIV Golf players are, of course, banned from playing on the PGA Tour and, therefore, won’t be teeing it up at TPC Sawgrass in March.

As one of the game’s bucket-list events, it was a huge thrill when this correspondent covered The Players Championship for the first time two years ago and I will admit that it’s really good tournament played on a very demanding golf course, one which boasts an iconic hole in the par-3 17th with its island green.

Yes, it always boasts a strong field as well, with US golf analyst Brandel Chamblee describing it as the “deepest” in the game and, therefore, harder to win than The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open or The Open.

Phil Mickelson is right on this one

For me, though, it honestly didn’t feel any bigger than either the Genesis Scottish Open, BMW PGA Championship or, for that matter, the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, all of which also boast strong fields year in and year out.

“I’ve won it. It’s not,” declared Phil Mickelson in delivering his verdict about The Players Championship being a major in waiting and, though it seems that the big man has lost the plot a bit at times in recent years, he is spot on about this one.

As was Paul McGinley’s response on social media to a post claiming that Reed’s hot streak - two wins and a second place in three events - was down to the DP World Tour having a lack of talent at the moment.

“Disrepectful” was how the 2014 Ryder Cup-winning captain described that, pointing out that the American is a “world-class player” who happens to be “hot at the moment”.

Yes, ten of the top players on last year’s DP World Tour are playing on the PGA Tour this season, but, in the likes of of South African Jayden Schaper, Frenchman Martin Couvra and Spaniard Angel Ayora, for example, there’s another bunch of extremely talented players competing on the circuit this season.

Indeed, it’s absolutely nonsense to think that Reed is simply turning up at events in Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar and being the man to beat. Just look at some of the golf he’s played to move into top spot in the Race to Dubai and, boy, is it going to be exciting to see Rory McIlroy, bidding to make it five in a row and equal Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Harry Vardon Trophy triumphs at the same time, trying to reel the American in before the end of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in mid-November.