Adelaide’s Grange Golf Club has refuted claims made in recent days about the state of its two golf courses and supposed member dissatisfaction with the club’s hosting of the inaugural Australian LIV Golf tournament last month.
In statements made firstly in Adelaide’s The Advertiser but later picked up by other news outlets – including ourselves – some members vented about the condition of the course in the wake of the wildly successful LIV event that drew more than 77,000 spectators. Member speculation suggested that the areas affected by tournament infrastructure, gallery movement and other tournament-related traffic would take months to recover.
That couldn’t be further from the truth, says Grange general manager Barry Linke, who adds that both the East and West courses are already back in use.
“We are pleased with how the course has recovered following such a fantastic event, which showcased Grange to a global audience,” Linke said.
“Both courses are now back in play, with members enjoying excellent playing surfaces. This is a credit to our ground staff, who have worked tirelessly. We will work with the LIV team to remedy the minimal damage to the course caused by the infrastructure, which has not affected playing areas, and look forward to planning the next event.”
The club also pointed to the results of its member survey that drew an 86 percent satisfaction rate and a mere 7 percent dissatisfaction with hosting LIV Golf. Meanwhile, even in the brief period since LIV Adelaide winner Talor Gooch and his LIV peers left town, the club has experienced an increase in applications for membership as a result of staging the event.
Grange president Nicolle Rantanen Reynolds said the club did its best to minimise the disruption to members in hosting the LIV event.
“Members missed eight days of play and received free tickets to LIV Golf on four of those days. Tee-times at other clubs were arranged for members to play during the eight-day closure,” Rantanen Reynolds said.
“From the perspective of the Grange Golf Club members and all golfers, the event provided the opportunity to see the world’s best in Australia. It was also fantastic for our state. As a golfer it was amazing – all golfers love to see great golf – and we got to see the best in the world! This was reflected in our member survey, with 86 percent of members being satisfied or very satisfied with the event.
“There were no temporary greens in use at any time. Our members were overwhelming positive, with more than 200 members per day now enjoying playing on both courses.”
