The Saudis just took over professional golf in the USA and Europe. Now the only question left is whether the process is pyrrhic.

THAT was a handful to wake up to this morning.

And my anonymous friend is correct.  Though I do believe that this is ultimate victory for the bad guys, there is question as to what, if anything, is left of professional golf (or any other!) in the United States when this all shakes out.

Because today, the PGA Tour, the DP World (European) Tour and LIV Golf just announced a merger.  Not the PGA Tour getting shut down by LIV, etc., but a factual merger which probably can only have come, financially, from LIV buying the PGA Tour.

My greatest fear of all of this is the Saudis basically taking whatever professional sports they can.  (And, don't look now:  Leo Messi is joining Cristiano Ronaldo in the Saudi soccer leagues.  AND MORE TODAY:  Karim Benzema, seen as one of the game's greatest strikers, has also gone to the Saudi leagues, signed today!  Spent the last fourteen seasons at Real Madrid.)

And, factually speaking, professional golf in the United States has been hanging by a thread since corporate and media made it the TGA 25 years ago.

And, in fact, the LPGA already is a world tour to begin with.  With this announcement, it is almost assured the PGA will follow.

But my anonymous friend urges caution.

First, as anyone well knows, the LIV Tour has done very poorly in the ratings, even on the CW.  One would have to wonder what kind of ratings the weekly tournaments are going to get when it becomes clear to everyone that the Saudis bought the PGA out, not the other way around.

And then second, what of the likes of Rory, Justin Thomas, and all of the others who opposed LIV Golf?  It's clear that non-Saudi options are running out or have run out.

But one thing is clear:  Whether they own it or kill it, the Saudi tentacles are tightening around world sport.