How money is talking as Fitzpatrick turns up volume

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Fitzpatrick beats Scheffler in play-off to win Heritage title

Golf but louder has been LIV's tagline as it has tried to become a big noise in the sport, but the decibel level was appreciably higher when Matt Fitzpatrick brought down Scottie Scheffler on the PGA Tour last Sunday.

While a disco thrum gave LIV a familiar soundtrack in Mexico City it paled compared with the partisan support for Scheffler, albeit in vain, at Harbor Town where Fitzpatrick picked up his second win in three weeks.

The Englishman collected $3.6m (£2.7m) for his play-off win over the world number one, while in Mexico Jon Rahm banked $4m, plus a share of $3m because his Legion XIII line-up secured the team jackpot.

They have become ludicrous sums on both sides of golf's great divide. And if last week's reporting on LIV is accurate, the money tap from their Saudi Arabian benefactors might soon dry up.

Rahm won by six strokes, his second LIV victory of the season on a circuit where he has finished outside the top two only once in six tournaments this year.

Indeed the Spaniard has never finished outside the top 11 in 31 completed tournaments on LIV. Finishing 11th on LIV is worth $380,000.

For much of LIV's four and a bit seasons, observers have become inured to the riches of its 14 tournaments. But given intense speculation that the flow of cash is about to end, the amounts involved suddenly feel more relevant.

Consider that Scott Vincent received $1m for finishing fourth last Sunday. Cameron Smith and Sergio Garcia each received $131,625 for a share of 40th place and Richard Bland pocketed $126,000 for coming 46th out of 57.

And then remember that Bryson DeChambeau wants a reported $500m to remain with a league that has burned through an estimated $5bn (£3.7bn) of Public Investment Fund (PIF) cash since its inception in 2021.

LIV's chief executive Scott O'Neil has assured players and staff that the money is in place for the rest of this season, but acknowledged that further investment will then need to be found.

That uncomfortable issue slipped out in an interview with LIV's British broadcast partners TNT, a social media clip of which was quickly taken down. Nevertheless LIV did announce they will return to Mexico City's Chapultepec Golf Club in 2027.

How such a promise can be made with confidence appears open to serious questioning, even though the latest tournament had a decent atmosphere and LIV have proved they can stage successful events at a local level in places such as Adelaide and Johannesburg.

Whichever way you look at it, men's professional golf needs backers with the deepest pockets to sustain such levels of largesse. And where are such figures to be found when even the once bottomless pit of PIF cash seems under threat?

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Fitzpatrick's parents on win against world number one Scheffler