Dustin Johnson’s act of greed stands out in Saudi Arabia’s vulgar rebranding game | Ewan Murray

There is very little competitive validity in the LIV Golf Series, with golfers willing pawns in the sportswashing exercise

There is a key problem with the distribution of a $4m (3.2m) first prize in a tournament that features a shotgun start. There will be no way of knowing if the winning putt at the Centurion Club on Saturday is to be holed on the 1st, 7th, 13th or any other green. Perhaps the conventional stroke-play format as used on mainstream tours is boring to some but at least people know where to be for the denouement.

If this were the only potentially messy element of the LIV Golf Series, which makes its debut in Hertfordshire on Thursday, Greg Norman would have no cause to worry. Instead, confirmation that Graeme McDowell and Dustin Johnson would feature in the $25m event sparked the kind of backlash that was inevitable given bottomless financing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The Royal Bank of Canada ended its sponsorship of both players. Golf, once such a safe domain for the corporate classes, now carries an element of risk as never before.