It’s not easy for most right–thinking people to care much about golf and golfers apart from gasping in wonder at the size of their bank balances. Right now the Saudi–backed LIV tour and the American and European tours are making occasional grunts of peace towards each other. Soon the various professional golf bodies will have so much money they will be able to club together and buy Saudi Arabia. But what you can be certain of is that no one has ever watched a LIV event of their own free will or is ever likely to, despite the presence of some of the world’s best players, like Jon Rahm, Bryson de Chambeau, Cam Smith and Brooks Koepka, plus quite a few who are past their best, such as Ian Poulter, wacky trousers and all, and Lee Westwood.

Quite how pulsatingly good a big LIV-free tournament can be was apparent on Sunday night at Sawgrass

At the moment the exiled LIV players are allowed back for the Majors, which means that amid the azaleas and manicured lawns of Augusta National, the world’s best golfers will be up against each other next month over the four rounds of the Masters. That might be all well and good for the ‘patrons’ – as Augusta National calls its spectators – but is it fair? After all, the LIV guys have trousered synapse-stunning sums of up to hundreds of millions of dollars to join the Saudi tour. Should there be no sanctions on these guys at all? Or does it just show that money can buy you anything, including the game of golf? Answers on a postcard…

Evidence of quite how pulsatingly good a big LIV-free tournament can be came late on Sunday in a four-way chase for the Players Championship at Sawgrass. Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, was up against the US Open champion Wyndham Clark, the Open champion Brian Harman and the Olympic champion Xander Schauffele. The outcome was up for grabs until the very last moment, when Clark’s putt to force a play-off U-turned round the lip of the hole for what seemed like an eternity before moseying back onto the green. It was golf at its most exciting, and that’s quite a rarity. And you certainly didn’t need Brooks or Bryson to make sure you had a good time.

What do jump-racing trainers with ambitions to win at Cheltenham, but who aren’t called Willie Mullins, and English football managers with aspirations to win the Premier League have in common? Answer: they might as well forget it. As surely as any owner with a good horse and visions of landing a big Cheltenham prize would start by putting in a call to Midas-man Mullins, the Irish trainer who has just notched up a staggering ton of Festival wins, so the owner of a top Premier League club when faced with having to choose a new manager would see his first pick as coming from overseas.

These days success attracts success like never before. The best really is the enemy of the good when talented trainers and football managers are viewed as second-rate if judged against the likes of Mullins or Pep Guardiola. The long list for Jürgen Klopp’s successor at Liverpool seems like a deliberate attempt to ignore any home-grown candidates. It goes something like this: Xabi Alonso, Roberto De Zerbi, Julian Nagelsmann, Unai Emery and Roger Schmidt. Isn’t there anyone from Britain who makes the grade?

Incidentally, there’s more to Klopp than the cuddly Koppite with a gleaming smile hugging his players and belting out chants with the crowd. He’s not a great loser, and he tends to take it out on TV interviewers. After his team lost to Manchester United at the weekend, Klopp didn’t take too kindly to the ending of his quadruple dream. Confronted with the man from Norwegian TV, he snapped ‘Bit of a dumb question’, before storming out with the words, ‘You’re obviously not in great shape.’ Not so jolly, Jürgen.