Just over two years on from a BMW PGA Championship at which Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell (all long-time contributors to the well-being of the European Tour and who had made a controversial jump to LIV Golf) were informed in writing that their presence would not be required in either the pre-tournament pro-am or the media centre, Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm were accorded welcomes to the UAE which can only be described as obsequious.

So it is that the attitude of golf’s establishment to those who chose to accept much gold from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund seems to be maturing. That is a good thing. However, the contrast in the treatment meted out to four men who probably didn’t have another Ryder Cup in them and to two whom most would agree are “must-haves” if Europe is to defeat the Americans this September does raise my cynical hackles. Especially at late stages of their distinguished careers, Stenson, Westwood, Poulter and McDowell deserved something better than contempt.

Think about it. If the European Tour – and their PGA Tour cohorts across the Atlantic – had possessed more confidence in the product they offered to golf’s elite players, then the emergence of LIV would have bothered them not a jot. Instead of a rush to ban, suspend and fine, an acceptance of competition in a game which should epitomise that very thing would have been more impressive.

Plus, had the ET and the PGAT reacted to LIV by saying “bring it on, we think we are better than you” fans everywhere would have been spared all of the nonsense which has plagued professional golf over the last couple of years. Instead of being thought of as little more than a distasteful group obsessed with money, the game’s best might still be considered noble representatives of what is, in many ways, a game built on integrity.

Okay, just for an ironic moment, put aside some of the indefensible stuff former Masters champion Patrick Reed has pulled over the years. Forget his sometimes tenuous relationship with the rules of the game. Instead, focus on the fact the 34-year-old American is a beautiful golfer, one good enough to get this observer to seek him out on ranges all over the planet.

Speaking at the climax of the Asian Tour season in Saudi Arabia at end of last year, Reed made a case which could and should have always been a cornerstone of the relationships between the game’s biggest tours. His case: if he or anyone else fulfils the requirements for membership on any of the world’s circuits, the freedom to tee-up elsewhere should be unaffected.

“The minimum number of starts required to keep your card on the PGA Tour is 15 events,” Reed said. “Then there are 14 more on LIV. Then there’s the majors. That is a lot of events. But if a guy is willing to do all that – and plays well enough to keep his cards – he should have the right to play. The same is true of the DP World Tour. If you play your four events and play well enough to keep your card, you should be able to tee-up the following season.

“If a guy wants to play more than 30 events in a year in order to stay a member of multiple tours, more power to him. In a perfect world, if you are qualified, you should be able to play wherever you want. But you have to play the minimums. And if you don’t, you get hit with a $1m fine, or a $2m fine. Or a huge suspension. I don’t really care. But hit him hard, where it’s going to hurt.”

Patrick Reed's logic that competitive sport should not be a closed shop which is dominated by a small number of participants is difficult to deny. PHOTO: Getty Images.

There is a logic to Reed’s argument that is difficult to deny. Competitive sport should not be an oligopoly; a virtual closed shop dominated by a small number of participants. Which is why it was so disappointing the see the PGA Tour and the European Tour respond in the way they did. Instead of attempting to maintain a status quo in which they enjoyed pre-eminence, it would have been so much more commendable had the biggest circuits embraced the basic concept of the sport through which they make their millions.

Admittedly, we do seem to be getting there. But throughout this seemingly endless process, it has been hard not to think that things could have gone a lot more smoothly had those involved tried to improve their own events, rather than attempting to ban the competition.