Controversy, but louder: Stenson’s LIV Golf title takes backseat in Trumpland

It didn’t take long for Henrik Stenson’s decision to join the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational Series to pay off handsomely.

Less than a fortnight after the even-keeled Swede was stripped of Europe’s Ryder Cup captaincy with immediate effect for defecting to the controversial Saudi-backed breakaway circuit on a reported $50m signing fee, Stenson carded a final-round 69 on Sunday afternoon to win LIV Golf’s third event by two shots over Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff at Trump National Golf Club in the leafy New Jersey township of Bedminster 45 miles west of New York City.

“I guess we can agree I played like a captain,” said Stenson, who brought home $4m for beating the field and an additional $375,000 for his team’s second-place finish, eye-watering sums that helped compensate for the withering criticism he’s endured since reneging on a March pledge upon accepting the captain’s post to fully support the DP Tour.

“I think there might have been a little bit of extra motivation in there this week,” he added. “When we as players have that, I think we can bring out the good stuff. I guess that’s been a bit of a theme over the course of my career, I think, when I really want something I manage to dig a little bit deeper, and a lot of times we manage to make it happen.”

On the surface it hit all the notes of a feel-good narrative: a hard-won return to the winner’s circle for a 46-year-old ranked 173rd in the world who hasn’t been there often since his record-breaking triumph at the 2016 Open. But as Stenson accepted the trophy alongside Donald Trump during a pyrotechnic-peppered ceremony that was curiously omitted from the official broadcast, while Donald Trump Jr declared it “the greatest F/U in the history of Golf”, a