Liv Golf is in England this week for the LIV Golf UK event from 2025. But on Saturday the new LIV CEO held a press conference to make a big announcement: a new LIV Golf event is coming to the schedule of the competition in 2026.
The country that is awarded with the new tournament is South Africa.
“I will tell you that old saying, it really takes a village to bring an event of this size and space to a new location,” said Liv CEO Scott O’Neil on Saturday. “I will speak for myself and say me and the minister in five minutes, and with Ross Hallett and Chris Bentley, two of my colleagues here, we knew that immediately [South Africa] is a place where we want to be for a very long time. ‘
He continued: “I am humble. I am very happy. I will tell you that we take a great group of people to the amazing country of South Africa. We bring the best players in the world of Golf, and we bring aircraft flights and we fill hotel rooms, and we fill restaurants. In Australia we also have $ 84 million from economic impact.”
The new tournament takes place from 20-22 March in the club in Steyn City, a Jack Nicklaus design in MidRand, South Africa.
While the event debuts in 2026, the plan goes beyond that. O
Gayton McKenzie, the Minister of Sport, Art and Culture of South Africa, had this to say about the announcement.
“Liv Golf has taken a step that I think it is worthy to emulate all major sporting bodies around the world. Liv Golf understands that it cannot really be called an international competition if it is a continent missing. I thought it is very difficult to convince Liv Golf that they should go to South Africa.
Louis Oosthuizen is the leader of the LIV Team Stinger GC, who consists of three other pros from South Africa. He joined the press conference to express his own excitement about the new tournament in his home country.
“Very enthusiastic about the tournament in South Africa. Everyone who was involved in doing this, I remember that I first met Mr McKenzie in Korea in Korea, and I think it was the idea to just introduce him to Liv, and suddenly he is so, no, we are coming to South Africa in ’26. Oh, this is, this is, this is, this is, this.
“For all involved – the Stinger Management, Liv, you – it is incredible to make this possible,” said Oosthuizen on Saturday. “I can’t wait to see the faces of 10, 11, 12-year-olds watching golf in South Africa and the euros playing, Phil, Bryson, Brooks, all these guys. It will be huge for our country and to let the game grow.”
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