Andrew Coltart: LIV has hit golf like an earthquake and is threatening entire fabric of game

Andrew Coltart has returned to Brookline, where he has “mixed emotions” from the 1999 Ryder Cup, feeling that golf has been “hit by an earthquake” that is ripping the game apart.

The Scot is part of the Sky Sports commentary team for the 122nd US Open, which starts at The Country Club in a suburb of Boston on Thursday.

It’s where Coltart made his one and only appearance in the Ryder Cup, sitting out the opening two days before being thrown in at the deep end by European captain Mark James against Tiger Woods in the singles, suffering a 3&2 defeat.

That match involved a controversial lost-ball incident but, more than 20 years on, it was a ripple in the ocean compared to what’s happening in the game at the moment around LIV Golf.

Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson were among the players who took part in a first Saudi Arabia-backed $25 million event in England last week, with Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed also now signed up for the next one in Portland later in the month.

The PGA Tour has suspended members playing under the LIV Golf banner, with the DP World Tour expected to make an announcement next week about what action it might take against the likes of Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter.

“This has hit golf like an earthquake, causing a rift in the game on a scale like nothing we have ever seen before, or even imagined,” said Coltart, who hails from Thornhill in Dumfries & Galloway. “It really is threatening the entire fabric of the game.

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“The background to this week is a shame, because golf could really do with a period of relative calm. We would all love to see a week of magic golf, with a great winner crowned at the end of it. Sadly, it looks like