Marc Leishman and his Ripper GC teammates relished the bedlam of LIV Golf Adelaide. But how does it build on that success for 2024?
Marc Leishman is still coming down from the high of LIV Golf Adelaide. 77,000 fans crammed into Grange Golf Club in Adelaide for three days and celebrated the arrival of LIV Golf in Australia for what appears destined to be a long and strong relationship.
Ripper GC, the all-Australian team captained by Cam Smith, was bigger than The Beatles. Fans Down Under relished seeing the reigning Open champion, as well as Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Jed Morgan, deliver a new 54-hole event for Australia alongside a pack of their fellow LIV stars like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka. Smith and his men were inundated with requests for photographs, selfies and autographs as tens of thousands of fans followed their groups all week.
Talor Gooch shot two 62s before holding on in the final round to win over Anirban Lahiri, while Smith tied for third. The golf was compelling and Adelaide proved a refreshing and interesting destination. But the real indicator that LIV’s Australian event was its biggest tournament to date was the atmosphere. Leishman compared it to being a “rockstar” for the week in an interview that canvassed how it can improve for 2024 and whether adding a second tournament in Australia next year might work.
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You’ve been in a playoff at the Open Championship at St Andrews (in 2015). You’ve finished fourth at the Masters (in 2013). You’ve won six times on the PGA Tour and once in Europe. How did LIV Adelaide compare to some of the biggest tournaments you’ve ever played in?
Obviously when you contend in a Major, that’s pretty special. And you can’t really separate any of your professional wins. All your wins are special. But sometimes you don’t look like winning a tournament until there’s four holes to go, so you don’t get that energy the whole week. We had that energy the entire week in Adelaide. It felt like what Phil [Mickelson] and Tiger [Woods] used to get every week in the US. When you’re in contention at Bay Hill (the Arnold Palmer Invitational) or the Travelers [Championship both of which Leishman won in his PGA Tour career], the energy is electric. I’d say the US Open at the Country Club [in Brookline, Massachusetts] last year was a similar energy to LIV Adelaide. The numbers of fans who showed up and the energy and passion of the crowds was so cool to see. LIV did an amazing job for their first tournament in Australia.
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Was there a moment that stood out during that week when it hit you and Smith that you two helped bring this tournament to Australia?
There were a few moments. A few putts I made that were so much fun, having the crowd on your side. I felt like they were on our side, for Ripper GC, but everyone at LIV felt that the crowd was just really happy to see all these great golfers play. Cam and I had a chat that Sunday night and… not that we needed any confirmation [about their move to LIV Golf], but if we did – which we didn’t – that was it. To take that event to Australia and play for the Australian people was pretty special. The coolest thing for me was seeing all the kids, how excited they were to see everyone and how accommodating the players were to signing [autographs] and interacting with fans. It was as good a tournament as I’ve seen.
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How can LIV Adelaide improve for next year? Allow more fans onto the course? Have more fans around the party hole? Have different infrastructure? Anything?
I don’t know [laughs]! I’m sure there is, but as a player, jeez it was already pretty good as it was. We felt like bloody rockstars all week! Obviously, Aussies love their beer so maybe a few more beer stands! I don’t know, I guess you’d have to talk to the fans, because from a player’s standpoint it was pretty spot on.
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How would you go about adding a second Australian event to LIV’s schedule? Would it be the week after LIV Adelaide? Would it have to be in Smith’s backyard of Brisbane where the crowds are guaranteed to go nuts for Smith and Ripper GC? Would you do two separate trips to Australia to build that hype for another five months after an April event in Adelaide?
You would have to go to a major Australian city. Does government funding have a little bit to do with it? I’m not sure. I would think about the vibe of a region, and I feel the Gold Coast would be a pretty good fit for LIV Golf with the party atmosphere there in south-east Queensland. I don’t know if you would stage the events back-to-back or if they would be two separate trips to Australia. If you have back-to-back events, you’d need two different sets of grandstands; logistically that would be very interesting or tricky. I think Brisbane or the Gold Coast seem like pretty good destinations for LIV, but that’s just my guess.
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Could Australia support a second LIV event?
For sure. Australia is a big place with a big sporting market. A lot of people travelled to Adelaide for it. It was sold out, so people still wanted tickets and capacity couldn’t allow them, so the demand was there. There’s no doubt Australia could support two. You certainly don’t want to flood the market and have more than two, but I think you’ve got to go where the people turn up.
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Do you feel like Australia has embraced LIV Golf maybe more than any other country? Australia is the only market where LIV is shown on one of the primary commercial, free-to-air TV networks (7 Plus) and the crowds voted with their feet.
Yes. I think because our country hadn’t seen players of that calibre in a long time, or at least since the Presidents Cup in 2019. But LIV is a very different product to the Presidents Cup. It’s good because it’s short and sharp; you can turn up at 11 o’clock and watch the golf, then watch a concert and then you’re home by 9pm or 10pm and do it all again the next day. I think that’s the appeal to golfers and non-golfers. The PGA Tour has a great product and LIV has a great product and there’s room for different tours within pro golf.
