Gold has never seen a week like this one

LONDON. – Ian Poulter wept as he hugged his son Luke on the 18th green at Le Golf National.

The Englishman had just completed victory over Dustin Johnson to take Europe to within a point of what was now inevitable Ryder Cup success over the United States.

There are millions more reasons to hone your game to a world-class status and this week Poulter puts at risk the chance of ever again enjoying the unique sporting glory that makes the Ryder Cup the most popular golf event on the planet.

It is a match where not a penny is exchanged.

It is about the winning, losing and taking part. It is top-level sport in its purest form.

Instead, the man they call Mr Ryder Cup – The Postman who always delivers for his continent – is one of those on the receiving end.

And, he has said yes to an offer that in monetary terms is too good to refuse.

This week the 46-year-old returns to his native Hertfordshire, in defiance of the established tours where he has plied his trade with distinction for two and half decades, with a swollen back pocket brimful of Saudi Arabian cash.

He is one of 48 players who will compete at the Centurion Club, 30 miles north of London, in the opening tournament in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, a project fronted by former world number one Greg Norman.

It threatens to blow apart elite level men’s professional golf.

He joins fellow Ryder Cup heroes such as Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer – the German who so thrillingly capped the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ 10 years ago.

Forget the glory – although we never will. Now it is all about the money and there is loads of it to go round.

Ironically Johnson, the man Poulter beat in France, is the headline act, for a reported signing-on fee of $150m (£119m). That’s before competing in the first of eight $25m events that offer a first prize of $4m and last place money worth $120,000.

This is a big-money power struggle where Saudi Arabian riches afforded by the Kingdom’s vast Public Investment Fund (PIF) are aimed at blowing up the status quo and rewriting golf’s future.

And before we get too romantic regarding the comparative innocence and sporting purity of the Ryder Cup, we should also remember that professional golf, in its essence, has always been about financial rewards.

The very first money matches of the 19th century, big betting affairs, led into the establishment of tournaments that paid prize money.

They evolved into formalised circuits that led to the setting up in 1968 of the PGA Tour and that itself was a breakaway from America’s Professional Golfers Association.

For decades this preeminent tour seemed an untouchable force, keeping the less lucrative European Tour in its place and fighting off Norman’s first attempt to institute a World Tour in the mid-1990s.

But now the Australian is back and with an extremely well-financed vengeance.

Both the PGA Tour and DP World Tours refused their players’ waivers to allow them to compete in Norman’s series.

Poulter and co are liable to sanctions, possible bans and fines, for taking part – although none are likely to be known until the players tee it up on Thursday.

Future Ryder Cup roles are in jeopardy for some of the true legends of the biennial match. – BBC Sport.