To the dismal list of indignities visited upon men’s professional golf — profound division, cutthroat rancor, naked greed, rampant entitlement — we can add brazen obsequiousness, evidenced by Thursday’s statement in which PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player-directors Adam Scott and Tiger Woods had to fluff Mango Mussolini’s ego to help secure government approval for a deal to reunify the sport.

PHOENIX — PGA Tour officials met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the tour said, in its first public acknowledgement of his role in potentially clearing the way for the tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund to strike a completed deal to ultimately reunify the men’s professional game.