WELL, that’s it then. By all accounts, the Saudi-bankrolled Super Golf League now has about as much chance of getting off the ground as one of Heath Robinson’s elaborate, steam-driven, winch-and-pulley absurdities.

Amid all the talk, the cloak-and-dagger dealings, the hush-hush of NDAs and the nod-and-a-wink innuendo, one of the best things about this prolonged rigmarole was Jon Rahm’s use of the word ‘fealty’ the other day as the world No 1 aligned himself with the PGA Tour in a robust show of loyalty which was mirrored by a parade of other stars over a weekend of significant twists and turns in this Saudi-fuelled saga.

I’m sure it’s the first time ‘fealty’ has made a headline since Harold’s oath to William of Normandy on some sacred relics was stitched into the Bayeux Tapestry.

While Rahm’s utterance had golf writers thumbing through the Thesaurus, Phil Mickelson’s startling comments about the Saudi paymasters he was willing to loup into bed with were a trifle less erudite.

“They’re scary motherf***ers to get involved with,” he said in a series of jaw-dropping excerpts which were released over the weekend from an upcoming biography by the writer, Alan Shipnuck.

The contents of the material also exposed how Mickelson hoped to leverage the threat of a breakaway Super League against the high heid yins at the PGA Tour.

“We know they killed [journalist Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights,” Mickelson explained. “They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.

“I’m not sure I even want (the Super League) to succeed, but just the idea of it is allowing us to get things done with the (PGA) Tour.”

It was eyebrow raising stuff as Mickelson’s moral compass went haywire. Given the impact his musings had, they probably should’ve been accompanied by a red alert from the Met Office. Then again, perhaps the Four Minute Warning would’ve been more appropriate as a series of nuclear bombs fell on the Super League scheme.

Not for the first time in his career – remember his merciless public filleting of Tom Watson in the grisly aftermath of the 2014 Ryder Cup? – Mickelson came across as a heartless opportunist fuelled by selfish desires. Rory McIlroy certainly didn’t hold back with a withering assessment of the six-time major winner and his cynical flirtation with the Saudi riches. “Naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant”, said McIlroy of the 51-year-old. Ouch.

For the last couple of years, the Saudis have been like some seductive siren warbling on a rocky outcrop in an attempt to lure the world’s best players into their money-soaked embrace. Golf’s ordered normality has had to navigate the kind of choppy waters you’d hear about on the Shipping Forecast but now, according to McIlroy, the whole Super League idea is “dead in the water.”

McIlroy nailed his colours to the mast immediately when the idea was first floated in 2020 and delivered a resounding Harvey Smith salute to the Saudis. Tiger Woods, crucially, was never on side either. It was left to big Phil to be some kind of Pied Piper figure but there’s a danger now that he’s become more of a pariah. 

Despite rumours that up to 20 leading lights were ready for an imminent walk out from the established tours, the opposite happened over the weekend. After the likes of Rahm and Collin Morikawa had sworn firm allegiance to the PGA Tour, statements of support released on Sunday by Dustin Johnson and a slightly begrudging Bryson DeChambeau, two players seen as potential defectors, fortified this united front and bolstered the status quo.

Despite this noble victory, golf’s tours can’t rest on their laurels. One can’t imagine the Saudis, with their limitless wealth, ambition and now severely dented pride, will simply disappear into the night. Their expansion of the Asian Tour, for instance, remains an intriguing sub-plot in golf’s power struggle.

Where all of this leaves Mickelson is anybody’s guess. If he’s not biting the hand that feeds him – he lambasted the PGA Tour the other week for “obnoxious greed” – then he’s burning various bridges and boats with the Saudis. On both sides, he must be about as popular as that human emission in the space suit that Billy Connolly used to joke about.

Mickelson has always courted risk and reward throughout his playing career. The bold, daring recovery shot, for instance, remains one of his hallmarks. Salvaging his reputation from the debris of this Saudi stooshie, however, may require a bit more than a bravely executed lob-wedge.

AND ANOTHER THING

Amid all the largely unedifying talk of obscenely rich golfers mulling over more obscene riches, it’s important to remember the good news stories.

Yesterday, the DP World Tour reinforced its commitment to disabled golf with the launch of the G4D (Golf for the Disabled) Tour which will see an increased number of events held at the same time as some of the regular circuit’s biggest tournaments.

One of the lazy, cliched assumptions about golf is that it’s riddled with exclusivity when, in fact, it’s one of the most inclusive sports of all. Disabled golf underlines that.