Charles Howell III raised eyebrows when he ditched his PGA Tour home for the riches of the LIV Golf breakaway last summer.
Not because the American player was jeopardising any hopes of making USA's Ryder Cup team like big-name LIV recruits Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau. Or that the 43-year-old was a serial winner with a realistic chance of claiming a maiden major title before defecting to the Saudi-backed series.
But Howell's move was more surprising than most because he had long been regarded as a deep-seated staple of the American circuit that had offered him such a lucrative career spanning two decades.
