On the eve of The Open the prize fund this week has been released. A total of $16.5 million up 18% from last year! In 2021 it was a mere $11.5 million.

This crazy money means that the winner takes home $3 million, with the third placed player receiving $1,095,000.

Scottie Scheffler this year becomes the first million dollar a tournament player. In 18 events he has won $18.5 million.

The catalyst to this huge increase has been the LIV situation and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of the Saudi Public Investment Fund is here at Hoylake as a guest of the R&A. I’ve heard a couple of golf broadcasters refer to him as “His Excellency”. I think that’s going too far. Not only does it sound sychophantic it makes him sound like the royalty of the whole sport. Even if he is bankrolling everything now, that’s enough.

I was watching the Aramco Ladies Series at Centurion last weekend and it was noticeable that the branding of the Saudi PIF was on all the hoardings round the course. But there’s no way an event of that clibre could have been staged without their investment. The LET were on their knees when Aramco stepped in as sponsors.

Last year I helped with some research with the R&A into their rebranding after The 150th Open. It was to be a complete change, aligning with nature. But I can’t help feeling that this is the last year we’ll see such pure branding. I expect that the crossed swords logo of Saudi Arabi will be everywhere on the hoardings next year at Royal Troon.