📋LIV Adelaide Preview

LIV Adelaide will be the 6th tournament on the LIV schedule for the year, kicking off this coming Friday 26 April 2024. This was easily LIV’s biggest and best event in 2023 and it is shaping up to be even bigger this year with ticket sales bursting at the seams. The Shank Show will be on the ground at The Grange Golf Club for the tournament, so be sure to follow along on our Socials:

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The Course

LIV Adelaide will be held again at The Grange Golf Club in the northwestern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. The Club has 36 holes (East and West Courses) and has played host to a number of significant tournaments including the West Lakes Classic (won by Greg Norman and Wayne Grady), the World Amateur Teams Championships, the Australian Amateur Championships and the Women’s Australian Open.

The West Course was redesigned and reconstructed by Michael Clayton Golf Design in 2007, whilst the East Course was reconstructed by Greg Norman Golf Course Design in 2012. The LIV Adelaide tournament will be played over a “composite course” comprising holes from both East and West.

Players to Watch

Cameron Smith - Smithy will be a fan favourite with the Aussie crowds. He’ll certainly want to have a win on home soil and also lead Ripper GC to team success in front of the big Australian crowds. Cam has been enjoying himself back home in Australia hamming it up with rugby league players in the dressing sheds at the recent Broncos home game against Canberra. But he will be in “go mode” when things kick off in Adelaide on Friday this week.

Anthony Kim - AK touched down in Adelaide early and has been seeing the sights with his wife and young daughter. However, he has also been hitting the practice range hard, spotted working on his swing at Kooyonga Golf Club. There has been lots of support for Kim on social media and he will attract plenty of crowd interest when the event kicks off. He’ll be looking to make some big improvements on the results from his first 2 events.

Bryson DeChambeau - Bryson has become one of the most famous and interesting golfers on the planet, especially via his YouTube channel and his quirkiness. He is a serious talent and can go really low. He hasn't cracked the nut on Aussie golf courses so far, but he is a much better player now than in previous trips down under and we expect him to seriously contend this coming week.

Jon Rahm - There is no doubt that Rahmbo had a disappointing Masters, so he will be looking to hit back with his first win in a LIV golf event. Rahm has been talking up how Australia has been a neglected location for world class golf and wants to see that change. What better way for the Spaniard to back this up than with a win at The Grange Golf Club this week.

The Experience

The Watering Hole - Looking to recreate some of the rowdiness from the famous 16th hole at the PGAT’s Phoenix Open, the 12th hole at The Grange will be a big draw card for LIV Adelaide. This Par 3 exploded last year when Chase Koepka made an ace and the crowd erupted into pandemonium. This year, there’ll be no Chase Koepka as he’s been relegated, but the grandstand seating has been increased significantly and the Watering Hole is definitely turning into a cauldron (per the flyover below).

The Crowds - last year’s crowds were some of the biggest ever seen for a golf event in Australia. This year will be bigger again with an estimated 100,000 fans getting to the Grange over the 3 days of tournament play. 40% of ticket sales have gone to interstate and international visitors, so the LIV Adelaide tournament has been a boon for South Australian tourism and the local economy. Australians are less interested in the politics of professional golf and more interested in having the opportunity to see some of the best players in the world battle it out.

The Fan Experience - LIV always puts on a great fan experience for those in attendance. It is one of the areas where LIV is really trying to differentiate and attract a new demographic of golf fan, particularly in the younger age brackets. In addition to the Fan Village (which includes a wide variety of food and beverage outlets and interactive golf games for kids and adults to partake in), LIV will put on a live music concert each day after play. Artists this year will be Tones & I, FISHER and Flight Facilities. There’s also an option for diehard fans to join players on the range during their warmup via the Flight Deck ticket upgrade.

🏆 Results Recap

Scheffler wins the RBC at Harbour Town

World number one, Scotty Scheffler, has taken out the PGAT’s Signature Event at the Pete Dye designed Harbour Town Golf Course in Hilton Head. Large crowds and a solid leader board where a feature of The RBC tournament despite it only being one week after The Masters. The leaderboard featured big names such as Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay and Colin Morikawa.

Scheffler got off to a sluggish start by his standards with an opening round of 70, but kicked in the gear over the weekend and had a 3-shot lead by the back nine turn on Sunday. Patrick Rodgers, Morikawa, Cantlay and Aberg were all in pursuit before torrential rain suspended play. The Tour was heavily criticised for failing to start the final round earlier and being unable to get a limited field of 68 players through the final round before the rain came. When play resumed on Monday, no one really threatened Scheffler in any serious way and Scotty even bogeyed the 72nd hole to still secure a three-shot win.

Scheffler's 2024 stats are impressive to say the least. In the PGAT Signature Events this year he has gone T5, T6, T10, Win, Win. In addition to that he won The Masters, has had three other Top 5 and finished no worse than T17 all year. This brilliant form has prompted lots of debate online about whether Scheffler is the best player we have seen since Tiger Woods. Whilst there are lots of opinions flying around, statistics are always more insightful:

• Data Golf has ranked the all-time best stretches of golf (since 1995) and this shows Scottie’s current run is second only to Tiger, just slightly ahead of Vijay Singh’s form from 2004.

• An alternate analysis has looked at Scheffler’s first 120 professional starts and compared the results to Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy. Interestingly, McIlroy is a clear second to Tiger with 4 Majors (vs. 2 for Scottie) and 13 Wins (vs. 9 for Scottie).

Either way, he is clearly the best golfer on the planet at the moment and it will be interesting to see how long this purple patch of form can last.

Nelly goes 5 in a row

Nelly Korda has won the first women's Major of the year at The Chevron. This is on top of winning the last four LPGA events which included the Matchplay championship. Nelly was the poster girl of consistency posting 68, 69, 69, 69 to win by two shots over European Solheim Cup team member Maja Stark. She started the final round one shot back of the 54-hole leader, Haeran Ryu. But by the 4th hole on Sunday, she had taken the lead and from there was never seriously challenged.

Much has been made of Scheffler's incredible run, but Nelly’s form has been all-time. This was her 13th career victory and her second Major. She now becomes only the third player in women's golf history to win 5 straight LPGA titles, equaling the great Annika Sorenstam. As for the 9 Aussies competing, it was a very disappointing result with Gabby Ruffels highest placed at T40, and big-name players Hannah Green and Minjee Lee both missing the cut.

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📅 Schedule for the Week

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: Zurich Classic - LPC Louisiana (New Orleans), $8.9m purse, Friday 26/4 to Monday 29/4 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, Main Coverage starts 5.30am AEST Friday, Featured Groups from 10.00pm Thursday.

• LIV Golf: Adelaide - The Grange Golf Club (South Australia), $25m purse, Friday 26/4 to Sunday 28/4 - Coverage on 7+, starts 11.45am AEST Friday.

• DPWT: ISPS Handa Championship - Taiheiyo Club, Gotemba Course (Japan), $2.25m purse, Thursday 25/4 to Sunday 28/4 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 1pm AEST Thursday.

• LPGA: LA Championship - Wilshire Country Club (Los Angeles), $3.75m purse, Friday 26/4 to Monday 29/4 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 8.30am AEST Friday.