Monty: We never played the game for money on the European Tour

One of the great things about having Colin Montgomerie back playing on the main tour is that we get to hear his opinions on things. This week the Scot has been playing in Dubai and he was asked about the threat of a Saudi-backed Super League.

The Asian Tour will see a $200m investment from the Saudi Arabia government's Private Investment Fund and we'll see a number of leading players tee it up at the Saudi International this week.

We'll see the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Xander Schauffele, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood all arrive at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club and, when questioned, most have admitted that the lure of an appearance fee was too big an opportunity to overlook.

"It's a shame it's come to this. We used to work well with the Asian Tour and now we are at loggerheads because of money," Montgomerie told BBC Sport. "It's a problematic issue. It's that horrible, evil word, money. The mighty dollar ruling people's hearts and minds.

"We never played the game for money as such on the European Tour when I first started out. I was trying to see how much better I could get as a golfer. Now it's all about that evil word, money. Let's hope the European Tour is closer to the PGA Tour than we've ever been before and we can fight it off."

This year we will see The Players Championship's prize fund double to a $20m event as well as other highly lucrative perks like the $40m Player Impact Fund to reward popularity over success. Or, in short, some easy money for the biggest names in the game.

"That money could have been used to promote the women's game," he added. "It's a ridiculous amount of money to be thrown at people who don't need it. But they know this problem is coming from Saudi and they need to sustain what they have.

"As self-employed individuals, can you blame them? But they've got to remember where they started and give some of that back. The ruling bodies of the European and American tours have said if you go the Saudi way then forget about the Ryder Cup, forget being captain and playing.

"We've had a couple of these ideas before, other leagues trying to damage the game which was never broken. The PGA and European Tours are not broken, they are in good health. So why try to fix something that isn't broken? It's going to be an interesting few months ahead."