Instead of a settlement, there’s the feel of slow, grinding trench warfare between the PGA Tour and LIV, where money bags have replaced sandbags along the front lines.

When all this crass money talk was last addressed, at last month’s Players Championship, some principals of the PGA Tour did hit upon one great truth:

The outside world could give less than two divots about how the golf industrial complex chooses to make these players wealthy. It just wants to sit on its couch, drink a Mich ULTRA or two and waste a Sunday afternoon watching the world’s best try not to go all gooey like taffy in the sun on the back nine. So, make it happen.

As PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan told the media then: “(The fans) are tired of hearing about conflict, money and who is getting what. They want to watch the world’s best golfers compete in tournaments with history, meaning, and legacies on the line at venues they recognize and love.”

The Masters and Augusta National fit that bill rather nicely, don’t you think?

“I think we need to try to re-engage the fans and re-engage them in a way that the focus is on the play and not on talking about equity and all the rest of it. If I were a fan, I would want to watch the best players compete against each other week in, week out,” said Rory McIlroy, championing the obvious.

It’s only human that people ruin everything. Now they’re working on what used to be one of the ultimate comfort sports. One that was running along so smoothly before LIV, one that had even received a nice bump in popularity as a result of the desire to get outside and breath and maybe hit the practice range in the wake of COVID-19.

The Masters does have some curative properties. It can thaw the cynic’s heart. It can charm the hardest of hardline sports fan, who otherwise might dismiss golf as polo on two feet. Now, might it remedy, if for only a week, this broken game? It arrives to provide the illusion of all the best players again playing meaningful golf, like they used to.

Last year’s tournament was a reminder that some of those chaps who went off to play their cute little 54-hole LIV exhibitions are still serious ball-strikers. Now including Rahm, LIV-ers finished 1-2-3 (Mickelson and Brooks Koepka the other two). Throw in Patrick Reed, and four of the top six were Saudi employees.

This year’s event contains a dozen LIV players, including seven past champions. Seeking a little more international diversity, the Masters even invited LIV’s Joaquin Nieman, even though they didn’t have to. It’s their tournament, they can draw names out of a hat if they choose.

For golf fans it’s a dysfunctional family reunion they can actually look forward to.

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