It’s fitting that LIV Golf Adelaide has become a fixture at The Grange Golf Club, the 36-hole course where Greg Norman collected his first ever win as a professional at the 1976 West Lakes Classic.
Almost 50 years later, the course – and the tournament – serve as reminders of what a force the two-time Open champion has been throughout his playing, business and administrative career.
LIV Adelaide is the league’s most attended event and a blueprint for what the rebel tour hopes to achieve around the world. Its most viral moment came in 2023 when Chase Koepka, Brooks Koepka’s younger brother, made a hole-in-one at the par-3 12th Watering Hole. It created headlines and highlight reels around the world.
Last year, more than 90,000 fans attended the 54-hole tournament and more than 100,000 are tipped to walk through the gates this week.
While the third edition of what has become LIV’s flagship event kicked off its tournament week with Tuesday practice rounds at The Grange, on the other side of the world, the R&A announced a direct pathway into the Open Championship via LIV’s points standings. In short, the top player, not already exempt, within the top five on the LIV Golf individual standings after LIV Golf Dallas (June 27-29) will be awarded a place in the field for the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush in July. It followed the United States Golf Association’s recent decision to award one spot in the US Open field at Oakmont CC in June to the leading points earner, not otherwise exempt, from the top three in the individual standings after May 19.
Adelaide is a week-long symbol of what Norman, as LIV Golf’s first chief executive officer and commissioner, forced professional golf to do: evolve. LIV itself may be polarising – and its 54-hole events with shotgun starts, no cut and music blaring during play may not be everyone’s cup of tea – but it cannot be denied that the league’s emergence, with Norman at the helm, changed the fabric of professional golf’s ecosystem.
On the PGA Tour’s side of the pro golf divide, purses skyrocketed in order to compete with LIV Golf, which is financed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment fund. The PIF is a major investor in an array of global sports including Newcastle United in the English Premier League (soccer) as well as bringing Cristiano Ronaldo and other stars to the Saudi Pro League and even forming strategic partnerships with the WTA and ATP tennis.
The PGA Tour now has a series of Signature events with $US20 million purses and a focus on gathering golf’s biggest stars more often to a predictable schedule. The PGA Tour had, for a few seasons, the Player Impact Program (PIP) to reward the needle movers for the eyeballs they drew to the tour. The top 10 on the PIP were rewarded handsomely, and so was the entire membership in the form of enormous prize purses. In the entertainment and broadcast corners, golf had to look at itself and ask whether TV broadcasts were properly serving golf fans. In addition to broadcast networks improving their golf product, LIV’s team element could be at least partially credited for prompting the creation of the TGL, a tech-infused golf league played on a simulator in an arena.
Would any of this have happened without a rival to the biggest tour in golf? Probably not. “When I look back on my past three-and-a-half years, from my past 20 years, oh my gosh, I really have changed the game of golf more than people realise,” said Norman in an interview with Brad Clifton recently.
While true, that’s of course coming from Norman. So, how about Rory McIlroy? One of the most vocal critics of LIV Golf since in 2022 and 2023. Even he said recently at the Dubai Desert Classic that Norman deserved credit for getting LIV going: “Greg took a lot of flack the first couple of years,” McIlroy said in January when asked about Norman’s departure as CEO of LIV, with the league bringing on Scott O’Neil. O’Neil has been the boss of major sporting and entertainment organisations like the NBA’s New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, and even Madison Square Garden.
“[Norman] is probably one of the only guys in golf who could have taken on that role. He got it off the ground and you have to commend him for that,” McIlroy added.
Whether you want to commend Norman or not, an expected 100,000-plus fans over three days at LIV Golf Adelaide is an appropriate tribute.
