The Grange hosts the world’s biggest LIV Golf Event
The inaugural LIV Golf Adelaide tournament made its highly anticipated and overwhelmingly successful debut from 21-23 April welcoming capacity crowds to The Grange Golf Club while setting ground-breaking records on and off the course.
LIV Golf’s first event in Australia marked the introduction of the league’s innovative format in the Southern Hemisphere, with many players on LIV’s star-studded roster playing on Australian soil for the first time, bringing elite golf to a previously starved market of over 25 million people. Some of the big names included Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Australia’s own Cameron Smith.
With an official attendance of 77,076, LIV Golf Adelaide firmly cemented its newly carved-out position in Australia’s landscape of major international sporting events. Due to incredible demand, and for the first time in LIV Golf’s young history, event organisers opened the gates for fans to watch LIV Golf’s stars play the course alongside amateur golfers in the Pro-Am on Thursday, April 20.
40 per cent of ticket purchases came from fans interstate or overseas and 37 Different countries were represented by LIV Golf Adelaide ticket purchasers.
The Grange Golf Club had over 100 staff that worked huge hours to put on this amazing event which consisted of greenkeepers, pro shop personnel, hospitality and administration staff. 633 volunteers were recruited and went above and beyond to ensure the players and spectators had a week they will never forget.
The event was played over a composite course where East meets West! The composite course consisted of all but one of the back nine holes of the East Course and the back nine of the West Course to create a configuration that provided arguably the strongest combination of holes on the property. Vision of the composite course can be viewed by clicking on this link.
Grange President Nicolle Rantanen Reynolds stated that “The Grange Golf Club was delighted to host the world’s best golfers at our course. It’s recognition of our excellent facilities and our ability to host world class golf tournaments with 77,000 in attendance. We worked with LIV Golf and the SA Government to deliver an outstanding event. 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% of members being satisfied or very satisfied with the event”.
Talor Gooch from the Range Goats shot a 10 under on Round 1 and 2 to win the event and break the record for best round related to par in LIV Golf history. Gooch’s 62 tied a LIV Golf record for lowest score, and he is the only player to shoot 62 twice.
One of the highlights of the event was when American Chase Koepka scored a Hole In One on Par-3, 12th ‘The Watering Hole’ on Sunday 23rd April in front of a sell-out crowd.
LIV Golf’s ‘Après Golf’ entertainment, a popular component of the league’s global tournaments, also featured at LIV Golf Adelaide, with Australian DJ sensation FISHER headlining Friday night’s live performance on the fairways at The Grange. FISHER traveled to Adelaide between performances at the 2023 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in California to perform for a sold-out LIV Golf Adelaide crowd. Contemporary rockers Birds of Tokyo and South Australia’s own Electric Fields took to the stage in the Fan Zone on Saturday and Sunday night respectively.
The Grange Golf Club ranked among best bunkers in the world by English professional golfer Ian Poulter with an Instagram post to his nearly 600 thousand fans saying “Now these are the best bunkers in the world. Why can’t other countries copy this? Perfection.”
Golf Icon Phil Mickelson was quoted saying the greens at The Grange Golf Club were “a lot like Augusta” where The Masters was held the previous week.
And Cameron Smith, captain of the all-Australian Ripper GC team commented during the tournament that “I would go as far as to say this is the best event I’ve ever played. I think I’m probably biased a little bit being from Australia, but this is what LIV Golf is about.”
Click on the links below to check out some highlights from the week
We cannot wait to welcome the event back and the world’s best golfers to The Grange Golf Club in 2024 for a bigger and better event. For more information, please contact General Manager, Barry Linke on 08 8355 7100.
Video courtesy of Heinrich Immersive Solutions