RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: Stenson's lust has left the Ryder Cup in tatters

Time was that Henrik Stenson trusted a man and lost a fortune. A few years on, the stakeholders of the European Ryder Cup team trusted Stenson and now find themselves seeking a new captain.

What an astonishing mess this has become, with the confirmation of the inevitable on Wednesday that Stenson has been stripped of one of the finest honours of his sport because of his lust for Saudi Arabian money.

According to some sources, the whiff in his nostrils is worth upwards of £30million in signing-on fees, and if we are to be exceptionally generous — to the point of blunt ignorance — you would say Stenson of all people can make the grab for LIV cash, because he knows exactly how quickly a full account can empty — he is a guy who was swindled out of £5m by Allen Stanford in 2009.

But great golfers do not go penniless for long. Stenson won £7m in one Tour Championship payday in 2013. In 2016 he won the Open and another £1.2m. 

The Ryder Cup captaincy? With a decent manager, captains can get around £4m with endorsements around the gig. They don't go hungry, nor do their grandkids. They earn enough to leave necessity out of their choices.

And that takes us to the one just made and the fallout of his greed, because it is just as important to look at how it impacts the environment he has left behind, which really is the crux of this matter.

LIV did not want Stenson, the once-brilliant golfer who more recently has missed cuts in seven of nine majors. They wanted a Ryder Cup captain as a means of weakening one of the great institutions of a sport they are taking over with vindictive cunning.

Ryder Cup Europe knew the Saudis wanted Stenson when they gave him the job in March. They also knew Greg Norman would probably come back for