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LIV Golf is playing its debut tournament in South Africa this week in what is set to be one of the league’s most-attended events since launching in 2022.
Roughly 90,000 tickets have been sold for the four-day competition at The Club at Steyn City, which is just north of Johannesburg—the country’s largest city with an estimated population of more than 6 million in its greater metropolitan area.
“For a while we’ve been trying to figure out how we can get it done, get a tournament here,” Louis Oosthuizen, captain of the all-South African Southern Guards LIV team, said Tuesday at a pre-tournament press conference.
The event also marks LIV’s debut in Africa, the sixth continent the tour will have played on in its five seasons of existence.
“Realistically we were thinking of getting it hopefully in ’28, maybe in ’27,” Oosthuizen said. “But yeah, we had some great support from the minister and from Steyn City and from everyone, and I think we all yesterday drove through the fan village, walked through Club 54, walked through the golf course a bit, and we were extremely proud.”
While the DP World Tour annually co-hosts the South African Open with the Sunshine Tour—this year’s tournament was played just outside Cape Town—that event typically lacks the starpower LIV has. LIV South Africa is projected to generate nearly $60 million in economic activity, according to SA News.
This week in Steyn City, a temporary stadium—dubbed The Lion’s Den—has been built around the par-3 17th tee box, giving LIV another “party hole” that will mirror similar buildouts at other popular tournaments like LIV Adelaide.
Australia is where LIV has seen its most success thus far, as a record 115,000 fans attended last month’s tournament in Adelaide, won by the rejuvenated Anthony Kim.
In the U.S., last August’s event in Indianapolis drew 60,000 fans, which is the most for a Stateside LIV tournament to date.
For comparison, though, many PGA Tour events typically draw well over 100,000 fans. Last week’s Players Championship recorded a total attendance of more than 200,000.
LIV has not yet revealed specific plans to return to South Africa in 2027, but last year announced a multi-year commitment to play in the country.
