Graeme McDowell deserves respect for his golfing career but the LIV tour he has unwisely joined does not

Harrington was speaking at a charity event in Co Limerick, the JP McManus pro-am.

“Being here is a little bit like Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving for your family,” said the Dubliner. “You know, you could have a sibling sitting there and you could be — we’ll Americanise it — you could be a Republican, they could be a Democrat, but you’re all friends at that particular time and maybe politics isn’t mentioned over the dinner table.”

This is all very heart warming, but we should hope it is wrong.

There is good reason for there to be a bitter split over what has happened with the LIV tour, which is a Saudi event that is trying to buy its way to prominence.

The first problem with LIV is the effort to use megabucks upend an established circuit of competitions of great prestige, such as the Open or the other majors. Sport is not just about money.

But the much greater problem is the sponsor. Saudi Arabia is a grossly repressive nation, that would have a long list of grievous rights abuses — including a revolting record on mass beheadings as a method of justice — even if there had not been an evil state-sponsored murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Graeme McDowell, one of the golfers to have joined LIV, is a figure of huge respect within the sport. For us here in Northern Ireland, he is one of our competitive heroes. That record will never be taken away from him.

But he has got things wrong by joining such an amoral tour. His justification in an interview to BBC NI yesterday was confused and laced with self pity. “I’m trying to make a business decision for me and my family.”

But if McDowell has not put millions aside after his hard earned and much deserved golfing success, then something has gone badly wrong with his finances. And if he has in fact saved, then accepting the highest bid should surely not be a golfer’s only consideration?

McDowell says that some people have wished him dead for joining LIV. What vile comments.

We will always wish this Ulsterman golfing star well. But not the LIV tour that he has so unwisely joined.