South Australian Premier’s punt on LIV Golf in Adelaide pays off after years of US PGA Tour deprivation

Other states thought it would be too controversial, but SA Premier Peter Malinauskas took a punt on Greg Norman’s LIV Golf tour – and the numbers show it’s paid dividends, writes SHANNON GILL.

LIV Golf has been all about outrageous numbers since it first split the golf world in 2021.

$100 million for Cam Smith. $130 million for Brooks Koepka. $300 million for Jon Rahm.

While those reported numbers scandalise loyalists and peace talks drag on with no resolution, there’s another set of numbers that has the Australian golf community feeling differently about the Saudi-backed rebels.

27 is the amount of majors won by players teeing up at LIV Golf in Adelaide this weekend. Three is the amount in the men’s field at last year’s Australian Open.

LIV player Joaquin Niemann kisses the Stonehaven Cup after winning the Men's Australian Open last year. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who took the punt on securing the event for his state when others thought it too controversial, says it’s the reason why Australia has become the jewel in LIV’s global tour crown.

“Australians have been deprived of high quality professional golf tournaments for decades,” he says.

“It was obvious to me that there was a market that wasn’t being met and golf has exploded since Covid. There’s a whole cohort of young people who are now engaging in the sport, women as much as men and people want to see the stars.

“The US PGA has deprived Australia of that forever. So, you know, this is an opportunity to right that wrong and that’s why we got on board.”

Last year Australians voted with their feet and their wallets, the 77,000- strong crowd was the most attended LIV event globally.

“It was awarded the world’s best golf tournament in 2023 so that gives a bit of an indication,” says LIV Golf Adelaide tournament director Nick Haslam.

“It was the largest attended tournament, the merchandise numbers were the biggest and the digital media feedback was really strong.

“We hoped it would be good and it probably exceeded even our own expectations. It was great.”

The thirst of Australian fans also had an impact on the players.

“The fans are what made that event so special,” says major winner Bryson DeChambeau. 

Nick Haslam enters his second year as the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament director. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

This year crowd capacity has increased and ticket sales are tracking towards topping 100,000. This would double the otherwise healthy 50,000 crowds at the establishment events in Australia, the PGA Championship and the Australian Open.

The crowds will be bigger, and so will the pizzazz.

A new fan area called the Barossa will overlook the 14th, 15th and 17th greens and a double decker viewing platform will be used for fans to get close to players on the driving range. Electronic acts Tones and I, Fischer and Flight Facilities will each headline a night of the post-play party, reinforcing how different LIV is in the loudest possible way.

“Everything is designed around the fan experience,” Haslam says.

“Traditionally golf’s aimed at the golfer, but we want to be attracting women, kids and people that are not historically into golf.”

That Adelaide is the major success in the LIV experiment makes a mockery of the US view that Australia is too expensive an undertaking to include on golf, and other sports and entertainment, tours.

“I think Australia’s got a really great event infrastructure,” Haslam says.

“We’ve got a great supply chain here which makes the efficiency as good as anywhere in the world.

It’s viable because we can run things well, we’ve got a great supply chain that makes the efficiency as good as anywhere in the world, and people absolutely love their golf.

From a revenue point of view, we’ve achieved our targets in terms of ticket sales.”

Talor Gooch on the 18th with the surging crowd during day three of LIV Golf Adelaide. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

While fans embrace is great for the bottom line, LIV’s association with sports washing Saudi human rights issues initially made it a tougher sell in the court of public opinion

Malinauskas admits that there was “absolutely” some soul searching on the ethics of being involved.

“We went through it thoroughly before we put our hat in the ring,” he says.

“Once I actually did a bit of research, it was clear that the people making those arguments were full of hypocrisy. We’d seen Saudi investments in the PGA tour previously, but the moment it went to someone other than them they started to complain about it.”

“The other thing is of course that the Australian government, under both the Labor persuasion and the Liberal persuasion, chooses to engage with Saudi Arabia very substantially; they’re a big trading partner.”

He borrows a line from Janet Jackson a song when dealing with the ethics of partnering with a supposed ‘rebel’ organisation.

“It was really the fact that, well, what’s the US PGA Tour done for Australia lately? And how is that fair on Australian golf fans?”

While many in Australia now agree with the Premier’s view, LIV is still a dirty word in the US as evident through the public spat between Fred Couples and LIV commissioner and Australian golfing icon Greg Norman at the US Masters last week.

Greg Norman walking Augusta National earlier this month. Picture: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

This puts the national body here, Golf Australia, between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Its primary goal is to get more Australians playing golf, which, further to Malinauskas’ point, it’s been doing a very good job of lately. In the last year 3.5 million Australians hit a golf ball on a course, a driving range or at a mini golf venue, up from 2.7 million the year prior.

There’s no question that an outside promoter with stars galore like LIV is a godsend to further promote the sport without costing Golf Australia a cent.

On the other hand, the organisation works hand-in-hand with the PGA of Australia who have pledged allegiance to the US PGA and DP World Tour with significant working partnerships.

Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland has largely kept silent on the issue but at the SportNXT conference last month gave his most public recognition of the Australian shift in sentiment.

“There’s clearly an anti or conservative sentiment about the Saudis in the US, but the further east you go on a world map from America, the more moderate the views are on that,” he said.

“From an Australian perspective we’d like to see one global tour where Australia plays a significant part.

While the world waits for possible unification, there is a growing sense the sport can’t ignore Australia anymore.

“I think there could have been a bigger effort made (by the tours),” Rahm told Australian Golf Digest last month.

“I do remember growing up watching the Australian Open, Australian Masters and Australian PGA and those three events being big events that attracted the best players. When I turned pro, it just wasn’t part of what players did.”

Norman was the drawcard of those glory days, and while opinions differ on ‘the Shark’ today, yet again he’ll be instrumental in drawing Australians to golf.

Originally published as South Australian Premier’s punt on LIV Golf in Adelaide pays off after years of US PGA Tour deprivation