LIV defers payment to Australian golf club as crisis deepens
Doubt over the 2027 LIV Golf tournament in Adelaide has deepened after a payment to the venue hosts by organisers was deferred.
Next year’s tournament is scheduled to be hosted from March 18-21 at the Kooyonga Golf Club in the city’s west, before what is supposed to be a more permanent move to a redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Club from 2028.
Cameron Smith in action at the 2026 LIV Adelaide event at The Grange Golf Club. Getty
On Tuesday, South Australia premier Peter Malinauskas said he had been made aware that LIV had asked for an extension on a payment to Kooyonga, worth a reported $500,000.
“An extension was sought by LIV as they’re working through programming next year for those payments to be made in September,” he said.
“That extension was granted.”
In a statement to the ABC, Kooyonga said it had “evaluated and approved” to LIV a “short operational extension regarding its initial venue payment”.
The Saudi Arabian PIF in April pulled LIV Golf’s funding beyond the end of 2026.
While LIV chief executive Scott O’Neill continues to furiously try and secure an estimated $430 million of investment, the general consensus is LIV will disappear from the golf landscape entirely at the end of the season.
And the end of the season looks likely to come earlier than expected, with reports the tour’s season-ending team championship, scheduled for the end of August has been cancelled.
According to leading golf outlet Flushing It, contractors scheduled to work on the event have had accommodation and travel to the August 27-30 event cancelled. It reported several were also owed money, and had not been paid in months.
The tournament was supposed to be held at The Cardinal at Saint John’s in Michigan.
Residents claimed construction on temporary infrastructure, including grand stands and hospitality tents, had not yet started barely a month out from the start of the tournament.
LIV has not commented on the reports, and the tournament remains on the schedule on the LIV website.
Lucas Herbert won LIV’s most recent event in the UK. Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf via AP
The next LIV tournament is scheduled for next weekend at Donald Trump’s course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The team’s championship was supposed to be the second of back-to-back tournaments following what might turn out to be the final ever LIV event in Indianapolis.