An amicable future for golf? BMW International Open offers a glimpse with rarity

Scan the line up for this week’s BMW International Open in Munich and you'll see a few names that are maybe not so familiar with DP World Tour followers any more.

Two-time major winner and home favourite Martin Kaymer, for instance, is in the field at Golfclub Munchen Eichenreid. So, too, is former Masters champion and the all-time record Ryder Cup points-scorer, Sergio Garcia.

Oh, and Patrick Reed, another Green Jacket winner and the man dubbed 'Captain America' after his passion for the Ryder Cup was ignited at Gleneagles in 2014, as well.

Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer, who now plays on the LIV Golf League, talks with fellow German Marcel Siem on day two of the BMW International Open at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

The trio, of course, are all now LIV Golf League players - Garcia captains Fireballs, Kaymer leads Cleeks and Reed represents 4Aces - on the Saudi-backed breakaway league that is now into its fourth season. Which might well leave some people asking ‘why they are playing on the DP World Tour?’.

Well, unlike the PGA Tour, LIV Golf players are not automatically banned from teeing up on what used to be known simply as the European Tour.

Tyrrell Hatton is currently sitting in an automatic spot for the Ryder Cup in September after producing some big DP World Tour performances towards the end of last year and the beginning of this one, having been eligible to do so as his appeal against fines and sanctions imposed by the Wentworth-based circuit for playing in LIV Golf events is pending.

Garcia, meanwhile, paid his fines to make himself eligible again for the Ryder Cup, with any player required to be a DP World Tour member to be considered for the transatlantic tussle, which Garcia has played in no less than ten times.

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For all his experience and fire, it remains doubtful that the 45-year-old will be on Luke Donald's team for a trophy defence on Long Island, but his presence along with both Kaymer and Reed in Bavaria this week is certainly worth looking into a bit more closely.

BMW, of course, is one of the DP World Tour's biggest partners, not to mention golf in general. The car giant also sponsors events on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour. In addition, it is one of the Worldwide Partners of the Ryder Cup as well.

It’s no surprise that they want to see the strongest field possible for the BMW International Open and it's never been any secret that Marco Kaussler, the tournament director, has been a close friend of Garcia for a long number of years. The same probably goes for Kaymer, who would always jump at a chance to play in his national Open.

As for Reed, he made a lot of friends - Bob MacIntyre was one of them - when he came over from the US to play as much as he could on the DP World Tour before LIV Golf turned his head and curtailed that a bit.

Do the trio add something to this week’s tournament? Of course they do. Just as Lee Westwood did when he teed up on Tuesday in The Open Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links and thrilled a large crowd following his group by winning the shoot-out on the Ayrshire coast.

Sergio Garcia, who captains Fireballs on the LIV Golf League, has been playing on the DP World Tour in Germany this week | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Judging by the reaction on social media to that success, the damage has been done as far as Westwood and the other defectors to LIV Golf in the eyes of some people and that, of course, is perhaps not surprising. The DP World Tour, after all, made the likes of Westwood, Garcia, Kaymer, Ian Poulter etc and not the other way around.

With all due respect, they won’t be missed in an event like next week’s $9 million Genesis Scottish Open. Not when the field at The Renaissance Club is set to boast the top five players in the Official World Golf Ranking and eight out of the top ten. And not when defending champion MacIntyre is set to fly the Saltire along with three other Scots to win on the DP World Tour within the past 12 months in Ewen Ferguson, Calum Hill and, most recently, Connor Syme.

There can be no denying, though, that the German fans will have enjoyed seeing Kaymer in particular in action on home soil this week and both Garcia and Reed, too, because major winners will always be star attractions and rightly so.

Lucas Glover, a former US Open champion, has said he doesn’t want to see LIV Golf players back on the PGA Tour and that topic clearly remains an issue as talks between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have gone very quiet indeed over the past couple of months.

LIV Golf player Patrick Reed was in the same group as Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson, the defending champion, in the first two rounds of the BMW International Open | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

It could be the case, therefore, that US fans have to make do with the top PGA Tour players and LIV Golf players only getting the chance to go head-to-head in the majors, as has been the case over the past three years and now in this one as well.

But, in Europe and the Middle East, a platform is clearly there to perhaps see a bit more again of players who were stars on the DP World Tour and for Europe in the Ryder Cup talking on the new stars on this side of the Atlantic.

Yes, it was their decision to go to LIV Golf and things turned a bit nasty, with some bridges probably unrepairable. However, maybe this week in Munich and those four Open Final Qualifiers - Lucas Herbert and Dean Burmester were among other LIV Golf players to progress to Royal Portrush - was a glimpse of a more amicable future for the game outside the US.

Here’s hoping!