Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson in LIV for the money - Meghan MacLaren right to shine a light on gender equality of DP World Tour, Ladies European Tour and 2020protour

Golf is a sport known for making those not even at a level to win tournaments on the PGA Tour filthy rich, but the money being thrown around for the controversial, Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Golf Tour is eye-watering, and quite honestly, unedifying.

Whether a player is taking up the offer of endless riches or staying loyal to the tours that already made them wealthy, has been headline news throughout golf these past few months.

Phil Mickelson not defending the PGA Championship he won as a 50-year-old 12 months earlier only to reappear this week at the Centurion Club, London, for the inaugural LIV event and an estimated up-front fee of $200m, renders any claims of his about excitement for the ‘transformative’, ‘progressive’ venture to be hollow.

Dustin Johnson quit the PGA Tour on Tuesday, the Tour that earned him $74m, because he doesn’t want to play golf for the rest of his life and LIV allows him to pursue other interests, which presumably includes buying small countries with his wealth.

Greg Norman’s rebel tour is shaping up to be a lucrative bridge to the seniors tour with Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell some of the big names teeing off Thursday, all of them in their late 40s, their best days behind them.

But giving this monstrosity any more column inches would be doing a disservice to the true circuits and tours that put the growth of golf first, not money.

Like the DP World Tour and Ladies European Tour which on the same day the LIV money wagon rolls out, combine to stage the Scandinavian Mixed event, a tournament that pits men and women alongside each other.

Or closer to home the 2020protour, now in its third season a circuit run in the north of England that sees men and women, either professional or amateur, competing as equals.

Two years ago on Wednesday, the 2020protour was the first sporting event to take place in Yorkshire after the first coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

Cleckheaton Golf Club staged a one-day tournament that pitted players like 14-year-old Headingley member Abigail Taylor against the likes of Ryder Cup player Jamie Donaldson.

Meghan MacLaren was in the field that day, a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour whose tweet this week summed up the mood.

“So much pretence with LIV about how golf ‘needs’ new formats and innovation,” she wrote. “This happens to be a week where that is legitimately happening on @DPWorldTour and @LETgolf with the Scandinavian Mixed, putting men and women on equal footing. Maybe tune in to the better side of golf.”

Amen to that.