“I’ve now lost track of whether I’m one of the good or the bad guys!” So Lee Westwood texted me on Tuesday after yet another remarkable chapter was written in the LIV saga. The former world No 1's bewilderment is eminently understandable.

Certainly the picture is becoming ever more confused, the landscape ever more surreal. Take the first official practice day here at The Players. Rory McIlroy strode into the media centre and all but confessed to feeling grateful to LIV Golf.

Yes, that is the Rory McIlroy, previously the arch critic of LIV Golf and everyone in it.

Regardless of what anyone says about the Saudi-funded rebel circuit, nobody can deny its remarkable impact on a professional world that until recently had been so set in its ways and so resistant to change.