Whatever golf purists think of LIV Golf, the numbers from Adelaide are hard to ignore. The 2026 LIV Golf Adelaide event, held at The Grange Golf Club from 12 to 15 February, drew a record 115,000 attendees and delivered $97.1 million directly into the South Australian economy, according to figures released by LIV Golf and the South Australian Tourism Commission.

The headline figures

  • Attendance of 115,000 over four days, up 12% on 2025 (102,483) and from 94,327 in 2024. LIV and the SATC describe it as the largest golf event in Australia’s history.
  • Direct economic impact for South Australia of $97.1 million, up 36% on 2025.
  • Total economic impact for Australia of $165 million.
  • 43% of attendees came from outside South Australia, and visitors stayed an average of 3.71 nights.

LIV and the SATC say the event has delivered $314.6 million to South Australia across its four editions. Economic impact figures of this kind are typically commissioned by event owners and governments, and depend on assumptions about visitor spending and what would have happened otherwise, so they are best read as indicative rather than precise.

A home win

The 2026 event introduced LIV’s four-day, 72-hole format. Ripper GC, the all-Australian team of Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert, Marc Leishman and Elvis Smylie, won the team title in front of a home crowd. Anthony Kim of 4Aces GC took the individual title, his first LIV win.

The festival model

LIV Adelaide’s success rests on treating golf as a festival. The 2026 event featured four nights of concerts after play, including Peking Duk and Royel Otis, and a Saturday headline set by US DJ John Summit that drew about 17,550 people. LIV says 36% of attendees were attending their first golf event and 39% were under 45.

“LIV Golf Adelaide has given us 314 million reasons to back in major events for South Australia,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said. “The value of international events like LIV Golf goes way beyond the dollar figure.”

Grassroots claims

LIV and Ripper GC also point to their partnership with Golf Australia on MyGolf, the national junior program. Golf Australia’s 2024–25 participation report records more than 40,000 MyGolf registrations, up 11.2%, and says under-18 club membership grew by 18.2%. How much of that growth can be attributed to LIV is impossible to say, but the program has given the league a stake in the domestic game.

What comes next

After four events at The Grange, LIV Golf Adelaide will move to Kooyonga Golf Club in 2027 and then to the redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Course in 2028, according to LIV.

For South Australia, the event has become a showcase of how a smaller state can compete for major events by offering something different. For Australian golf, it raises a question: can traditional tournaments learn from LIV’s fan experience without its controversies? The Australian Open and Australian PGA have already moved toward more entertainment-led formats, and their crowds have grown.

The answer will matter for the economics of the Australian summer of golf, as governments and promoters compete for the same visitors and sponsors.