This weekend marked the divergence of two Irish golfers, one of whom cemented victories of two kinds.
Rory McIlroy beamed from behind the microphone after his Canadian Open win, as delighted as any sportsman who beat the field.
But even had he not won, he distinguished himself from some of the Irish golfing fraternity in not engaging with the bonfire of morality that is the LIV Golf tournament.
Read more: How much money did Rory McIlroy earn by winning The Canadian Open?
In his post-round interview, he gave a telling rebuke to Greg Norman, a driving force behind this weekend's event in London.
"I think going up against the best and beating the best is always makes it extra special. Then, look, I alluded to it, I had extra motivation of what's going on across the pond.
"The guy that's spearheading that Tour has 20 wins on the PGA Tour and I was tied with him and I wanted to get one ahead of him. And I did. So that was really cool for me, just a little sense of pride on that one."
The gloves, quite rightly, are off.
LIV Golf is funded by LIV Golf Investments, backed in turn by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF is the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, with capital and assets of around €570bn. It provided the funding behind - among others - the majority takeover of Newcastle United.
Saudi Arabia has a list of human rights abuses that are so many as to become some sort of diabolical fractal - the more you look, the more there are.
As is the case with any issues that remain enormous in number, it becomes easier to look away because they feel so overwhelming.
But even by their floor-low moral standards, the Saudi state has begun to exceed reasonable expectation.
On 12 March of this year, three months before the glitz of LIV Golf, Amnesty International found that 81 men were murdered by the state on one day.
81 men killed over a 24-hour period for such sickening crimes as “disrupting the social fabric and national cohesion” and “participating in and inciting sit-ins and protests”.
It is easy to avert your eyes, but that tainted money is moving to ever-farther reaches of the cultural landscape as the pawns of the Saudi regime move into place all over the world.
Mohammed bin Salman’s move to invest $2bn into a fund managed by Jared Kushner , the son-in-law of former President of the United States, Donald Trump, show a calculated thumbing of the nose to the United States government.
President Biden has been snubbed both personally - bin Salman reportedly declined a call from Biden in March of this year - and on state business. The Saudis’ decision to not increase oil supply to allow for less reliance on Russian energy was a pointed one.
American-Saudi relations promise to be a driving factor in global security in the coming years, and tournaments such as LIV Golf are part of a full-court press on American influence.
In this sense, sportswashing has intense power.
Getting people like Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood to squirm in front of the cameras about their involvement with this project is one thing, but the ubiquity of Saudi state investment in global sports will ultimately succeed in wiping blood from its image if it continues.
The spectre of Jamal Khashoggi haunted this tournament, in particular, the press room.
A journalist, found by the United Nations to have been murdered by the Saudi state, his body dismembered, Khashoggi’s bravery was the best of this industry.
How fitting, then, to see the press room dynamised by such a callous crime to ensure that the likes of Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood found no comfort in those plush seats.
In an Irish sense, the most damning spectacle has been that of Graeme McDowell.
McDowell was one of the most loved sportspeople on these islands. Affable, with a cheery mid-Atlantic accent and a good persona on the course.
He was the ideal golfer for the casual golfer to get on board with. He liked a cold beer, he wasn’t a fan of spiders.
McDowell has torched that reputation near-entirely, in a matter of weeks.
Watching his press conference, McDowell unwittingly-crystallised the exact reason for sportswashing and why it is so powerful.
“I think we all agree that the Khashoggi situation was reprehensible - no one is going to argue that fact. But we’re golfers,” McDowell began.
“Speaking personally, golf is a force for good in the world. I try to be a good role model to kids because I know what the game of golf has taught me.
“We’re not politicians. We’re professional golfers and if Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf to get to where they want to be, and they have the resources to accelerate that experience then we’re proud to help them on that journey using the game of golf.”
Read that last sentence again.
It is the perfect encapsulation of what Saudi Arabia want to do, and why the complicity of the likes of McDowell is so gutting and so powerful.
Make no mistake - no parent should want for their child what is driving this macabre spectacle.
No child should aspire to profiting from a state that imprisons and murders people for their sexuality, all the while almost daring democratic countries to say something so they can pull another lever.
The love and fanfare for McIlroy and McDowell has often differed in its intensity and nature over the years.
But, after this weekend, and the stomach-churning events of this immoral jamboree, Rory McIlroy stands alone in the best possible way.
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
