When Xander Schauffele rolled in a 6-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Valhalla Golf Club on Sunday evening to win the PGA Championship, he did so while facing the best field of professional golfers that could be assembled.

If Schauffele had missed the putt and made par on the hole, he would have been forced into a playoff with Bryson DeChambeau, who had just finished one of the most spectacular rounds of golf ever played in the final round of a major championship. Indisputably, both men are among the best golfers in the world, and the drama of the final round had me glued to the TV for the entire afternoon and evening until the final putt dropped. It was truly a treat to watch.

But the tragedy of this exciting spectacle of sports is that for the past two years, golf fans have only been afforded the opportunity to see all of the best players in the world compete on the same stage for the four major tournaments each year.

While Schauffele competes on the PGA Tour and has for his entire career, DeChambeau left the tour in 2022 and joined the upstart LIV Golf league that is funded entirely by the Public Investment Fund of the government of Saudi Arabia.

Other big names in professional golf such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Jon Rahm have also made the move to LIV, depriving the PGA Tour of some of the biggest names in the sport for its weekly tournaments. It should be noted that the PIF has entered into negotiations with the PGA Tour to potentially merge the two leagues and end this schism in professional golf.

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Regardless of what one might say about the PIF and LIV, it is an indisputable fact that golf has suffered greatly by having the best players in the world divided between two competing tours. As a fan, I want to see the best players compete against the best players. It is the only way we can separate the truly excellent from everyone else. To use another sport as an example, it is no different than if the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox abruptly decided that they would never play against each other again.

The back-and-forth between Schauffele and DeChambeau was golf at its best, and it is a reminder of what used to be and what can be once the civil war between LIV and the PGA Tour is resolved. Regardless if you are a fan, a player, or sponsor, the game is at its best when the best golfers in the world are all on the same stage, week in and week out.