Unless you have been without Wi-Fi or living under a rock for the last two months you will know about the Saudi Golf League and their organisation’s attempt to muscle into the world of The US PGA and DP World Golf Tour.

Rory McIlroy has described it as an unprecedented ‘money grab’, other PGA players have called it ‘sports washing’, ‘utter greed’ and everything in between. The centre players, who have been offered eye watering amounts of money, have been holding their cards very close to their chest whilst watching the events unfold. These players being, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson. If you were to believe everything that was being said in the papers (which of course you should do if you're reading this one) they were absolute locked in certainties to be playing in Saudi Arabia in this new Golf League. However, they broke cover early this week stating their allegiance and loyalty towards the US PGA Tour.

It appears that competition is more important than money with every player saying that they're going to be loyal to the PGA Tour because they want to play where the best players are playing. Now that's quite a statement, they want to play where legacy lives and the best players compete. It's quite a statement because when compared to the worlds of American football, basketball and soccer where the sports agents run rife and salaries are enormous, our golfers are more interested in winning the money from the very best competing for every cent so that they know when they finish, they played against their peers and have a true reflection financially of their talent.

No mention of Tiger?

McIlroy also came out with the really interesting observation in saying that Tiger hasn't even been mentioned, the Northern Irishman believing that Tiger is still the ‘epicentre’ of the game and without him any Tour trying to be born is almost certainly doomed to failure.

There's still no golfer who moves the needle as much as Tiger and he has remained very very quiet about the goings on in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps because he's as American as apple pie and has no desire to travel the world for money, being the first billionaire golfer in the history of the game.

A lot of money has been thrown around at golfers and some had actually signed contracts with the Saudi league and non-disclosure agreements. It looks at this stage that their recruitment drive has left them heavy on the 40+ year old pros and very light on the top ten players in the world. With John Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland and McIlroy all turning their backs on this new pretender with deep pockets.

What’s significant about those names is that they currently occupy the top five spots in the official World Golf Rankings, so if everybody is being true to their word saying they want to play against the best, it turns out the world’s best have made a decision and money wasn't the decisive factor. Leaving DeChambeau and Johnson no choice if they wanted to play seriously competitive golf; what they would have been left with in Saudi Arabia is a bunch of ‘B' list tour professionals or players who were coming to the end of their career and quite thankful for a few more 10 million dollars in their bank account.

There have been a few squeaks over the past six months that the DP World tour and the US PGA Tour have been making it clear that a dim view would be taken on their players heading East, all done of course very lightly. I would suggest it was more like an iron hand in a velvet glove but they are allowed to protect their own environment are they not?

What it does mean though is that The Players Championship will have a full field, the 17th at Sawgrass will have all the drama in a couple of weeks’ time which must be a relief for all golf fans, mustn't it? Whether or not Ian Poulter, Phil Mickelson will be playing - we shall see.