With the British Open Complete, Focus Returns to PGA Tour, LIV Golf Alliance

Last week the R&A indicated it may be willing to accept Saudi Arabian money, while other players criticized the LIV Golf alliance. Get ready for more off-course headlines.

HOYLAKE, England – The major championships come and go so quickly, especially since the schedule change four years ago that saw the PGA Championship moved to May.

It hardly seems that long ago that Jon Rahm was surging past Brooks Koepka and a rallying Phil Mickelson to win the Masters at Augusta National. Koepka then dominated the PGA at Oak Hill, followed by surprising first-time major winners Wyndham Clark at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club and Brian Harman at the British Open at Royal Liverpool.

More from the British Open edition of the Weekly Read: Zach Johnson's Ryder Cup Dilemma | PGA Tour-LIV Drama Set to Resume | FedEx Cup Countdown | Fore! Things

There’s still the FedEx Cup playoffs to be contested, which means nearly all of the top players in the world will convene for a three-tournament series of events that begins in just two weeks. And then a few weeks later, one of golf’s best events, the Ryder Cup, takes places in Italy.

Golf tends to slip into the background as football gears up, even though a full two months of PGA Tour and DP World Tour events will take us through the end of the year.

But golf also promises to have some prominence as well. A major championship and perhaps the Ryder Cup are a nice diversion from all the rancor, which promises to continue as details of the “framework agreement’’ between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia begin to take shape.

Even last week at the Open, the subject was difficult to ignore. Martin Slumbers, the CEO of the R&A, made some pointed comments about the state of the game.

“The world of sport has changed dramatically in the last 12 months,” Slumbers said. “And it is not feasible for the R&A or golf to just ignore what is a societal change on a global basis. We will be considering, within all the parameters that we look at, all the options that we have.”

In other words, the PIF money that was so widely scorned as it backed the rival LIV Golf League will now be considered given the Saudi Arabia influence in all of a sports.

Slumbers bemoaned the rising purses in the game, numbers that have caught his organization off guard. Nobody wants to lag behind when it comes to paying the top players, but only the U.S. Open jumped up to pay the $20 million purse that seems to be the magic number for LIV Golf and the designated events.

As it was, the Open gave a record $16.5 million, with $3 million going to Harman. While seemingly suggesting that he’d like to draw the line, Slumbers also knows that for the R&A to fund its various worldwide initiatives, more revenue will be necessary. And if the rest of the world – including now, apparently the PGA Tour and DP World Tour – are willing to take the controversial funding, well, the R&A will get in line.

Ernie Els might have one of the more interesting takes on the subject. He’s clearly not a fan of the LIV Golf 54-hole concept with shotgun starts, but he believes the powers that be should have listened when the PIF made overtures well before.

And in an interview with Sports Illustrated following the first round at Royal Liverpool, the two-time Open winner and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame made it clear he was not happy with the secretiveness of the talks that led to the framework agreement.

“Listen, they want to do a lot of things in Saudi,’’ Els said. “They’ve got sport coming. Whatever you’ve seen in in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar., they’re doing it on a bigger scale than that. So they want to set all these things up. Formula 1. Golf, tennis, boxing. All this stuff. They want to become bigger. And Yasir (Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF) wants to be a head of that.

“‘Do we play ball with him? Does he come in at a different rate, maybe a smaller investment, see if they are the right partner? Not just come in and take over world golf. That’s just ridiculous. Need to slow things down.’’

Els also expressed his view that he believes is being missed: “I think Yasir needs to come out and say what he’s thinking. He’s going to be chairman of this NewCo, chairman of the board. Whoever is the commissioner, whoever is left, they are going to be answering to him. I don’t know how the hell they can’t see that.’’

The money talks. And those who control it typically get their say. How this all plays out will be fascinating to watch over the coming months while the big events wind down but the drama outside the ropes only intensifies.