Entertainment, star names and awareness of culture are the three key ingredients Greg Norman has used to build LIV Golf, with the Australian confident the formula can be transplanted anywhere to capitalise on pent-up demand.
Now in its second full season, spanning 14 tournaments, the Saudi-backed league and its 54-hole format, punctuated by thumping music, has injected itself as a rival to the PGA Tour, poaching a slew of high-profile talent.
Its fledgling success is nowhere more evident than in Norman’s homeland, with fans flocking to the tour’s Adelaide stop last year and capacity expanded at this week’s event to cater for demand.
“This event here, from last to this year, is the benchmark for LIV,” said Norman.
“We get all the other events, 13 events around the world to take a look at what we’ve delivered here and what Adelaide has delivered and what the state government has delivered and what the local community and the region has delivered, and you go, it can be done. Here it is.”
South Australia state premier Adelaide was named the world’s best golf event of 2023 by the World Golf Awards, which are part of the World Travel Awards.
“We always took a calculated risk as a government that Australian golf fans had been starved of high-quality professional golf for decades ... and they responded in droves,” he said.
“What I think will take this event to another level this year is that there are a lot more people here. We’ve increased the capacity of the facilities here at Grange (Golf Club).”
Norman is already planning LIV’s 2025 and 2026 schedules, despite uncertainty around what the global golf calendar may look like.