Phil Mickelson on the first tee at Centurion Club
Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson drew the biggest crowds on the opening day of the LIV Golf London event

There is a change in the world of golf. And very, very fast.

After the most lucrative event in the sport's history began, there was evidence of that.

This week has seen players resign from the PGA Tour and be asked if they are Saudi stooges in uncomfortable news conferences.

The PGA Tour suspended 17 members who chose to play in the inaugural Saudi Arabian-funded golf tournament.

LIV, fronted by Greg Norman, called the PGA Tourvindictive.

The golf tournament that is shaking the game to its core began.

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17 of the 48 players were oblivious to the PGA Tour's decision that would be waiting in their email inbox as they all teed off at the same time.

Six-time major champion Phil Mickelson and former world number oneDustin Johnson are among the biggest names in the sport to have been lured by the Saudi millions.

The Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is said to be bankrolling the series with a reported $150 million in appearance fees for Johnson.

The Americans were grouped with the Saudis on the first day of the tournament, with Phil Mickelson getting a rapturous reception on the first tee.

A fly-by of vintage airplanes and buglers dressed as Beefeaters heralded the start of the tournament, with Johnson hitting the first shot in front of hundreds of fans.

Slow ticket sales have been a problem.

The tournament has a cap of 8000 fans per day but players such as Lee Westwood have been advertising promo codes for free tickets on their social media channels

The majority of fans I spoke to were eager to see the likes of Westwood and his team-mates, as well as trying to get their heads around the team element that is being pushed by the organizers.

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There are 12 teams of four players and an individual competition. This first year with players likely to change from event to event, it may be difficult for fans to pick teams that they can root for.

The goal is to provide a television-friendly product but no broadcasters have signed up.

At the end of the day's play, there was a concurrent audience of around 100,000 who had watched coverage on their own website and on YouTube.

LIV has been unable to do anything about the plague of slow play in golf. The 48 players went out in 16 groups of three for four hours.

South Africa's Schwartzel leads the way at five under and his club is in first place.

James Morrison was the headline act and the focus was on music in the fan zone. He spoke in front of an audience of a couple of hundred people.

There was a buzzy atmosphere in the hours leading up to the shooting. Three hours before the start of play, the gates opened and there was a fanzone with a DJ playing music.

The fans were unperturbed by the large sums of money on offer this week.

Saudi Arabia is accused of using the PIF's deep pockets to sponsor sporting events and distract attention from their questionable human rights record.

The player news conferences were dominated by the topic. Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary, was drafted to brief the players.

To a man, they all said they didn't condone human rights violations and that the murder of a journalist in Saudi Arabia was "reprehensible".

At last month's event to promote this tournament, Fleischer was brought in on the back of Norman's "we all make mistakes" remark. Norman is not allowed to speak to the media this week.

The 67-year-old has said many times that he doesn't want to compete with the established PGA Tour or the European-based DP World Tour and that players are free to choose which tournaments they want to play in.

As the players left the course, they were not surprised to learn of the tour's suspension.

He resigned from the tour 30 minutes before he was due to start.

The PGA Tour has been great, he said. I hope they don't follow suit but they have a strategic alliance with thePGA Tour and may have to follow suit.

He joked that he's not going to buy any team merchandise anytime soon.

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