Editorial: The LIV and PGA golf merger appears to be a victory for blood-soaked Saudi cash in the game

​​Something shocking happened in the world of golf yesterday. The established and respected PGA competition circuit merged with the Saudi-backed rebel LIV one. There was a bitter rift between the two, after LIV tried to buy its way to prominence. Some of golf's biggest names succumbed to greed and obscene amounts of money to play with LIV.

It showed the very worst side of sport, in which pay packets trump all other considerations. We see this in football in the UK, we see it in basketball in the US, and in tennis around the world. If LIV was merely a story of a new tour trying to bury the existing tour with cash, it would be quite bad enough. But it is much worse than that. Saudi Arabia is a brutal nation in which women are oppressed and the most serious crimes are punished by public beheadings. It is also a country so intolerant of dissent that it organised the murder of the journalist critic Jamal Khashoggi by cutting him into pieces while still alive.

It was a sorry sight to witness one of Northern Ireland's all-time golfing greats Graeme McDowell explain his defection to such an amoral tour with the feeble comment: "I’m trying to make a business decision for me and my family." The multi-millionaire player made it sound as if he was struggling to put a meal on the table.

Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, took a heroic stand against LIV, turning down gargantuan sums of money to join the rival, and speaking out fiercely against it.

Are there redeeming factors in this merger? It is hard to see any. Donald Trump, a man obsessed with money, in particular his own billions, crowed yesterday: “A big, beautiful, and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf”. But last night there was a reminder that many PGA players still have integrity, as they expressed disgust at the triumph of blood-soaked Saudi money.