LIV Golf's Australian debut at Adelaide's Grange course in 2023 – and 2024 – voted the world's best golf event
LIV Golf Adelaide event at The Grange Golf Club in 2023 fufilled with breakaway circuit's vision for “golf but louder.” A party-like atmosphere prevailed throughout the three-day sold-out tournament.
Adelaide’s record-breaking LIV Golf tournament was named the World’s Best Golf Event of the Year in 2023 and 2024 at the World Golf Awards, voted on by golf professionals and the public.
The inaugural Australian event, at The Grange Golf Club from April 2023, drew an official attendance of 77,076, with 40% of tickets bought from fans interstate or overseas. Crowds watched a star-studded roster of players including Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson.
The Adelaide event fulfilled LIV’s push, with its non-traditional format, for “golf but louder.” A party-like atmosphere throughout the three-day sold-out tournament had its most joyously chaotic moment when hundreds of drink paper cups were thrown onto fairways and greens from the stands after a Chase Koepka hole in one. Images of Koepka’s hole in one on the par-3 Watering Hole at The Grange were beamed around the world, with the event attracting more than 55 million views on social media across LIV Golf channels.
Adelaide was confirmed to have the only Australian event on the 2024 LIV world circuit, with the South Australian government, through the South Australian Tourist Commission, securing rights to the event for the next three years.
LIV Golf, financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and run by chief executive Greg Norman, was set up as a breakaway from the PGA (Professional Golfers' Association of America). The name LIV was Roman numerals for 54, with LIV events being 54 holes and a golfer having a birdie on every hole on a par-72 course would end with a score of 54.
The Grange Golf Club’s two internationally-rated courses (west and east) were used as a composite layout for LIV Golf Adelaide. Holes 9-10 and 12-18 of the east course, redesigned by LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman in 2012, provided holes 1-9 for the composite course. The back nine of the west course, redesigned by former Australian pro Mike Clayton, provided holes10-18 for the composite course. The west course had been ranked among Australia’s top 50 courses and was the site of Norman’s first professional win in 1976. The west course hosted the 2016 and 2019 Women’s Australian Open and was a quintessential sand-belt layout.
