The Source: Sam Groth redefines mission impossible with LIV pitch

Sam Groth must’ve known he faced a tall task to wrench the LIV golf away from Adelaide, but if he’d read the fine print he would’ve realised just how hard it would be.

Sam Groth with Greg Norman at LIV golf Adelaide. Picture: Kelly Barnes

For years now the Liberal strategists have been telling us that if they are to have any chance of returning to government it will be the votes of the plain folks that get them there.

But no one appears to have told Sam Groth.

The journeyman tennis player turned state MP was out and about in public at the weekend in Adelaide catching up with “influencer” Bec Judd at a DJ Dom Dolla show in Adelaide.

The man-of-the-people was in South Australia to watch LIV golf at The Grange Golf Club where the subs and joining fee will set you back around $14,000.

While he was over there Groth told the Herald Sun he’d been meeting with representatives of LIV with an eye to bringing it to Melbourne.

Only of course if the voters smile on the Coalition in 2026.

“I’ve met them while I’ve been over here, absolutely,’’ he said.

“They’re happy here but it’s a pretty good event and would fit in well within the Victorian calendar.”

A good event and a good fit it might well be.

But alas it can’t come to Victoria for another 15 years.

Golfing sources tell The Source under the terms of the deal agreed by golf nut Daniel Andrews to bring the Presidents Cup to Victoria 2028 and 2040 we are barred from hosting LIV.

Something it seems no one had told the Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport, Events and Hospitality.

The Source has been told it didn’t take long after this story broke for his ignorance to be corrected by a Liberal elder statesman famed for his forthright manner.

Maybe Groth could instead concentrate on getting UFC back to Melbourne, a sport much more in line with the new image of the People’s Liberal Party and which hasn’t been held here since 2019.

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