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Here’s the prize money payout for each golfer at the 2023 LIV Golf Adelaide

Golf Digest Middle East — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 13:50:15 +0000

If you follow the local press, there’s a sense of genuine anticipation for the LIV Golf League’s debut in Australia this week at The Grange Golf Club in Adelaide. Reports say 60,000 tickets have been sold, while fans were allowed on the grounds during the Thursday pro-am (a LIV first). And the stadium style set-up on the par-3 12th, dubbed the “Watering Hole”, has the potential to give TPC Scottsdale’s 16th a run for its money.

Indeed, LIV’s “Golf But Louder” slogan might be more fitting than ever as the circuit holds its fourth event in 2023.

WATCH: The absolute mayhem at the LIV Golf Adelaide Watering Hole 12th as Koepka nails hole-in-one@livgolf_league @LIVGolfUpdates @LIVGolfLatest @LIVTracking @Mattjosmith #LIVGolfAdelaide #LIVGolf @SmashGC @ChaseKoepka https://t.co/Owr3jFYhGN

— Golf Digest ME (@GolfDigestME) April 23, 2023

Some of that anticipation comes from a lack of top-level golf events being played in the area in recent years. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman’s following doesn’t hurt, nor does that of the four Aussies who play for Ripper — Cam Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Jed Morgan. And trying to see how Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed might follow up their impressive performances at the Masters two weeks ago.

In the end, however, Talor Gooch ultimately stole the show, building a 10-stroke lead over the first two rounds with back-to-back 62s, then hanging on with a closing 73 to win by three strokes over hard-charging Anirhan Lahiri and four over Patrick Reed, Smith, Cameron Tringale and Pat Perez.

As usual, LIV Golf Adelaide was a no-cut, 54-hole event with a $20 million individual prize money payout, $4 million going to Gooch for his win. There’s also $5 million on the line in the team competition, which takes a slight twist this week with team captains compete against each other while the other three players of each squad will comprise their own threesomes for the opening round. In the end, the 4 Aces (Dustin Johnson, Reed, Perez and Peter Uihlein prevailed by one shot over the RangeGoats (Bubba Watson, Gooch, Harold Varner III and Thomas Pieters).

Here’s the prize money payout for the field at Adelaide.

INDIVIDUAL
Win: Talor Gooch, 197/-19, $4,000,000
2: Anirban Lahiri, 200/-16, $2,250,000
T-3: Patrick Reed, 201/-15, $1,000,000
T-3: Cameron Smith, 201/-15, $1,000,000
T-3: Cameron Tringale, 201/-15, $1,000,000
T-3: Pat Perez, 201/-15, $1,000,000
T-7: Peter Uihlein, 202/-14, $533,333
T-7: Dean Burmester, 202/-14, $533,333
T-7: Charl Schwartzel, 202/-14, $533,333
10: Dustin Johnson, 203/-13, $415,000
T-11: Jason Kokrak, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Bubba Watson, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Kevin Na, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Sergio Garcia, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Henrik Stenson, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Phil Mickelson, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Harold Varner III, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Louis Oosthuizen, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Brooks Koepka, 204/-12, $310,000
T-11: Abraham Ancer, 204/-12, $310,000
T-21: Marc Leishman, 205/-11, $230,000
T-21: Charles Howell III, 205/-11, $230,000
T-21: Sebastian Munoz, 205/-11, $230,000
T-24: Chase Koepka, 206/-10, $207,500
T-24: Danny Lee, 206/-10, $207,500
T-26: Ian Poulter, 207/-9, $192,500
T-26: Mito Pereira, 207/-9, $192,500
T-26: Bryson DeChambeau, 207/-9, $192,500
T-26: Brendan Steele, 207/-9, $192,500
T-30: Joaquin Niemann, 208/-8, $177,500
T-30: Bernd Wiesberger, 208/-8, $177,500
T-32: James Piot, 209/-7, $162,500
T-32: Thomas Pieters, 209/-7, $162,500
T-32: David Puig, 209/-7, $162,500
T-32: Richard Bland, 209/-7, $162,500
T-36: Lee Westwood, 210/-6, $147,500
T-36: Carlos Ortiz, 210/-6, $147,500
T-36: Graeme McDowell, 210/-6, $147,500
39: Paul Casey, 212/-4, $142,500
T-40: Scott Vincent, 213/-3, $138,750
T-40: Branden Grace, 213/-3, $138,750
42: Matt Jones, 214/-2, $135,000
43: Jediah Morgan, 215/-1, $132,500
T-44: Matthew Wolff, 216/E, $128,750
T-44: Eugenio Chacarra, 216/E, $128,750
46: Martin Kaymer, 223/+7, $125,000
47: Sihwan Kim, 230/+14, $122,500
WD: Sam Horsfield: $80,000
ALT: Laurie Canter: $40,000

TEAM
Win: 4 Aces (Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein). $3,000,000
2: RangeGoats (Bubba Watson, Harold Varner III, Talor Gooch, Thomas Pieters), $1,500,000
3: Stinger (Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, Dean Burmester, Brendan Grace) $500,000

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Koepka and others wave white flag at Gooch’s LIV Golf Adelaide assault

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 15:22:11 +0000

Talor Gooch. Asanka Ratnayake

Eighteen birdies, one eagle and not a single bogey. That’s how Talor Gooch built a 10-shot lead through 36 holes at LIV Golf’s highly anticipated Australian event.

In front of 23,000-strong crowd in Adelaide, the Oklahoma State alum and one-time PGA Tour winner signed for his second-straight 62 at The Grange GC to sit at 20-under heading into the 54-hole event’s final day.

Gooch is a whopping 10 shots ahead of a six-way tie for second that includes Masters runner-up Brooks Koepka (65), Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel. Local favorite Cam Smith (66) was a further stroke back and in a tie for eighth at nine-under with a group that included Phil Mickelson (65), who tied Koepka for second at Augusta National two weeks ago.

Koepka, who triumphed at LIV’s Orlando event the week before he threatened to win a fifth major at the Masters, waved the white flag on Saturday night.

Captain Brooks Koepka of Smash. Jason O’Brien/LIV Golf

“I don’t think anybody is catching him,” Koepka said of Gooch. Smith, the reigning Open champion, agreed. “I think [Gooch] would have to help us out a little bit, which I don’t really wish on anyone,” Smith said. Oosthuizen, who like Smith has won an Open Championship at St Andrews, added: “To shoot 10-unders in a row around this track is unheard of.”

At 6,900 yards, The Grange is short by professional golf standards, but its defences are the myriad doglegs, strong bunkering and slick greens. None of which has been a problem for Gooch, who is chasing his first win since taking out the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic in the autumn of 2021. Gooch has only missed three fairways and one green in regulation over two days.

“Everything is just going my way,” Gooch said modestly.

As for putting, Gooch said he had leaned heavily on his Australian caddie, Mal Baker, who has played plenty of golf around The Grange.

“He’s been great on the greens,” Gooch said. “I’m relying on him more on reading the greens this week than in general because of his knowledge and his comfort here.”

It is Gooch’s third 36-hole lead in 11 LIV events. He finished sixth and 11th on those occasions. But the World No. 57 said he had learned plenty on how to close from those failures.

“I know I don’t have to have my best stuff to win,” Gooch, who finished T-34 at the Masters recently, said. “Fortunately, these first couple days I think I’ve had some of my best stuff. But winning in professional golf, any level on any tour is really hard. I think the thing I can take away from those other opportunities is tomorrow is not given. I’ve still got to go play good golf, and not only for myself but especially for the team.”

So how will Gooch sleep on a 10-shot lead when a $4 million pay day is in sights? With the assistance of a little treat from the nearby Barossa Valley wine country.

“I went and did a little wine tasting Tuesday, and I’ve got a couple bottles of wine,” he said. “We had one last night, so probably going to have another one tonight. Yeah, I’ll go get a light workout in after this and then I’m going to go have dinner with a couple people and open a little bit of some Torbreck [winemaker Torbreck Vintners] and then go get some sleep, do the same thing.”

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Record ticket sales for LIV Golf Adelaide in Australia

Matt Smith — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 12:33:53 +0000

By GolfDigestME.com
Interest in LIV Golf’s first tournament in Australia has sparked record ticket sales, with more than half of the entire capacity sold since LIV Golf Adelaide was announced last week.

As of Monday, approximately 35,500 tickets have been sold — 32,500 grounds tickets and 3,000 hospitality tickets. Of that total, 25,000 were sold within the first 48 hours after tickets became available for the 2023 event in South Australia, to be held April 21-23 next year at The Grange Golf Course.

The high demand is evidence that sporting fans around the globe are excited for the 2023 season with fans already securing tickets from South Africa, Thailand, Singapore, Fiji, the United States, Canada and beyond. The support from Down Under has been unprecedented with fans eager to see reigning Open Champion Cameron Smith, along with countrymen Marc Leishman and Matt Jones.

“I knew LIV and the Australian public would just absolutely embrace our platform,” said LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman. “I’m looking forward to not only playing in Australia, but playing in front of friends and family,” Smith said. “Adelaide will be awesome.”

The LIV Golf Adelaide field will also feature six-time major winner and Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson; two-time major winner and reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion Dustin Johnson; and other major winners such as Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson.

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Demand Down Under: How South Australia landed LIV Golf Adelaide

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 04:01:33 +0000

By Mike McAllister, Contributing Writer
Born and raised in Queensland, Greg Norman doesn’t hesitate to call himself a banana bender, the humorously affectionate term for inhabitants of Australia’s north-eastern state.

Even so, his connections with South Australia run deep. When his father’s great grandfather arrived in the country, his entry point was Port Lincoln, in the Eyre Peninsula and roughly 150 straight-line miles from the capital of Adelaide. “Really, my whole family history from my father’s side started here,” Norman has said.

From a golfing standpoint, South Australia also became a pivotal point in Norman’s Hall of Fame career. It was in 1976, at the age of 21, that he won his first professional event, the West Lakes Classic. Shooting 64-67-66 the first three days, Norman led by 10 strokes going into the final round, eventually holding on to beat a field that included Aussie greats Bruce Crampton, David Graham, Bruce Devlin and Graham Marsh.

That tournament was held at The Grange Golf Club, and in 2012, Norman returned to the Adelaide area to redesign the East Course. It’s now one of the top 60 courses in the country, according to Australian Golf Digest’s latest rankings.

Greg Norman with South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas. LIV Golf

Ten years later, the next chapter of the Norman-South Australia relationship has become official with LIV Golf’s announcement that the 2023 season will include a stop at The Grange on April 21-23 for the league’s first event held Down Under. A joint news conference with Norman, LIV Golf’s CEO and Commissioner, and South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas on Monday morning in Adelaide made the multi-year agreement publicly official.

“This is going to be unlike any other sporting event that we’ve hosted in the state of South Australia,” said the premier, “and it’s something that is truly international that we can all be very proud of indeed.”

It should come as no surprise that Norman made it a priority to hold a LIV Golf event in his home country.

“I’ve always been a staunch proponent myself personally as a player to promote the game of golf in Australia,” he said. “I did it for decades and decades. So I made the journey down here, and I knew how the Australian market was basically devoid of quality players to the magnitude of what LIV has on its books, and I knew LIV and the Australian public would just absolutely embrace our platform.”

The Grange Golf Club. LIV Golf

As if on cue, tickets became a hot commodity on Monday, with an extremely high demand for three-day grounds passes. LIV Golf released additional tickets later in the day in hopes of satisfying the early consumers.

Pushing to play in Australia was one thing. But pushing a particular location is another. Despite his strong ties to The Grange, Norman wanted to make sure the LIV team did its due diligence in site selection.

Three months ago, a LIV contingent arrived in Australia to scout various courses. Norman gave the team a list of approximately two dozen courses to check out. Like with all world-class golf events with significant attendance, hospitality and logistics needs, certain criteria needed to be met. Evaluations went beyond the critical first-level scope of the course itself.

Of those 24 courses, the list was whittled down to eight potential sites. The Grange obviously was one of them. But as discussions and conversations were held, Norman reminded himself that his involvement needed to be with the head, not the heart.

“I have a little bit of a soft spot for it,” he said of The Grange, “but I couldn’t let the emotion override the business decision.”

Still, during the negotiating stage when Norman made contact with Malinauskas, he was impressed by the premier’s enthusiasm and energy toward the potential of hosting the LIV event. “His reaction was so positive because he loves golf, he loves LIV, he loves the footprint that LIV can deliver,” Norman said. “He loves the mechanism that LIV can deliver from an economic standpoint for his state, from a tourism perspective. The acceleration of the conversation was almost like lightning speed.”

Tourism, indeed, was a key consideration for Premier Malinauskas.

“From the moment that the rumours started circling that LIV could end up in Adelaide, my phone along with many others lit up like a Christmas tree talking about where are the best places to stay, go and book,” he said.

Just last week, the Australian Football League announced plans to host a 24th round of its 2023 schedule entirely in South Australia, with all 18 clubs playing in nine matches, many of them at the Adelaide Oval. This “Magic Round” will take place April 13-16.

A week later, LIV Golf comes to town. The economic impact, said Premier Malinauskas, is expected to be in excess of $70 million. The timing is especially convenient for Australians since it comes during the middle of national school holidays.

“We’ll see the whole state bursting at the seams showcasing everything we have to offer,” he added. “We know when people come to South Australia for the first time, they end up wanting to come back a second time. They go home and they spread the world. So the prospect of having LIV Golf attracting a whole new demographic of people to come to our state, not just to experience golf but to experience all of our amazing regions and the world-class food and beverage offering is something that is worthwhile to be excited about.”

Greg with Australia’s Cameron Smith. LIV Golf

One other thing Australia’s golf fans will get to see in April is the reigning Open Champion Cameron Smith. The 29-year-old captain of the all-Aussie team Punch will be the featured attraction for many locals.

When Smith joined LIV Golf prior to the fourth event of the season in Boston, the first thing he mentioned in his introductory press conference was his desire to give his homeland a world-class event. “It will be exciting to bring another event down to Australia,” he said, “showcasing some of the world’s best golfers at great golf courses down in Australia.”

At the time, no official announcement on the tournament’s location had been made. But with Smith and good friend Marc Leishman becoming LIV members, it was evident that Australia had become a top priority. With Smith winning in Chicago in his second start, and Punch having their best showing at the season-ending Team Championship in Miami with a second-place finish, Norman knew his fellow Queenslander had made the expected impact.

“I couldn’t have done it quite honestly without having someone like Cam Smith willing to commit to Team Aussie,” Norman said. “For him coming on board and to see the way has 120 per cent embraced LIV and the LIV family concept has helped accelerate it all.”

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Rookie wins in her first start as a member of the LPGA, becomes only second player to do so

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 06:54:55 +0000

Ko Jin-young of South Korea plays a shot during the final round of the Women’s Australian Open at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide on February 18, 2018. James Elsby/AFP Photo

By Keely Levins
The 2017 LPGA season saw 22 different winners, showcasing the depth of talent on the tour. Two events into 2018, the new season looks like it could play out in similar fashion. At the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, South Korean rookie Jin Young Ko won wire to wire, shooting 14 under to win by three strokes. The win came with a bit of history as Ko became only the second player to win in her first start as a member of the LPGA Tour, joining Beverly Hanson who did it in 1951 while winning the Eastern Open.

There is a caveat to Ko’s feat; the 22-year-old won the LPGA’s KEB Hana Bank Championship last October when she wasn’t an official member of the LPGA. That victory guaranteed her LPGA membership for the 2018 season.

Suffice it to say, Ko didn’t play like an anxious rookie when she teed it up at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide, opening with a 65 to take an early lead. Even heading into the final round, Ko said that she didn’t feel overly nervous. She had the cushion of a four-shot lead, so that helped. The only anxious moment came when she was made aware of the fact that her win would be historic.

“I tried not to think about it,” Ko admitted.

Ko handled the added pressure with ease, shooting a final-round 69 to win by three over Hyejin Choi. Choi, who is 18 years old, made her name known on the LPGA Tour when she finished second in the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur. Choi has since turned professional.

Both Ko and Choi found success on the Korean LPGA Tour before competing in LPGA events. Ko won 10 times on the KLPGA before getting status on the LPGA.

After her win, Ko was asked what her goals are for the season. She said she wanted to earn Rookie of the Year honors. When asked if she’d considered aiming for Player of the Year, she remained modest but certainly not dismissive of the idea.

“No,” she said. “Not yet.”

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