Chase Koepka ace still reverberates as LIV Golf Adelaide nears

Party time: Chase Koepka celebrates his 13th-hole ace at LIV Golf Adelaide last year. Image courtesy LIV Golf.

By Rahul Banerji

Chase Koepka’s hole in one and the wild party that followed at the Grange in Adelaide was one of the highlights of LIV Golf’s maiden foray into Australia.

Koepka, who was relegated out of the league aced the par-3 12th, nicknamed the Watering Hole, setting off a massive, beer-soaked celebration.

The focus this year is to go better with the facilities and atmosphere, league commissioner and CEO Greg Norman said after the event where Talor Gooch and the 4Aces walked away with the trophies.

Attendance last year was 77,000 spectators for the weekend and Norman said later, “Our goal is to exceed 30,000 a day. It’s easier said than done … (but) for us it’s the goal we have got to do and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Talking to Golf Digest Australia, Norman said, “I work very closely with the SATC, the South Australian Tourism Commission. They have got the bit between the teeth and want to improve it.

“We’re under contract with them for multiple years. We want to make what we did last year as the minimum benchmark with what we can do going forward.

Benchmark event

“We used LIV Adelaide as the benchmark for all our other 13 events around the world. Because it created the true culture of what LIV is all about: the energy, the lifestyle, the integration of entertainment fandom.

“All that stuff was there and Adelaide was the one that stepped up to it.”

Adelaide will be the sixth tournament in the 2024 LIV Golf League schedule from April 26 to 28, offering a total purse of $25 million, $20 million for the individual event with a field of 54 in the fray — 13 teams of four each, and two wild cards

Australia’s top draw, Cameron Smith who finished tied for sixth with fellow LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau at the Masters said he was looking forward to Adelaide.

“It’s going to be a magic week for us,” he said.

In 2023, the turnout of 77,076 at the Grange Golf Club was the highest of the season.

Smith, winner of the 2022 Open Championship, and his all-Australian Ripper GC team of Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert will be among the favourites though they are currently eighth in the standings.

Another team bound to be heavily backed are Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, who won their second title of the season at LIV Golf Miami while defending champions Crushers GC have become a force to reckon with.

In the individual race, Miami winner Dean Burmester, Smith, Sergio Garcia, standings leader Joaquin Niemann and DeChambeau will be popular title choices,

Also read: Burmester outlasts luckless Garcia in LIV Golf Miami playoff