{"id":610148,"date":"2026-04-16T06:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610148\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:42:13","slug":"sa-government-has-assurances-from-liv-golf-as-adelaide-course-upgrade-under-fresh-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610148\/","title":{"rendered":"SA government has ‘assurances’ from LIV Golf as Adelaide course upgrade under fresh scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South Australian government has reaffirmed its commitment to a $45 million upgrade of the North Adelaide Public Golf Course to host LIV Golf in 2028, despite new doubts about the Saudi-backed tour’s future.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was on the verge of cutting its support for the LIV Golf League, following years of sustaining hundreds of millions in financial losses.<\/p>\n

The tour has held an event at Adelaide’s Grange Golf Club since 2023 and is scheduled to move to North Adelaide in 2028 following a $45 million state government course redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The government has repeatedly said its redevelopment plans are not dependent on LIV Golf and the course will be open to the public for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

Housing and Urban Development Minister Nick Champion said the state government has “sought and got assurances” about LIV Golf’s future.<\/p>\n

“We’ve asked for assurances and got them from the LIV executives, and they’ve denied the speculation that’s going on at the moment in the international press,” he told 891 ABC Adelaide on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

SA Housing Minister Nick Champion says the government has sought, and been given, assurances from LIV executives. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)<\/p>\n

Mr Champion said the golf course upgrade was “always” in Adelaide City Council’s plans and the “catalyst has been the very big success of LIV Golf in Adelaide”<\/p>\n

He denied “speculation” about LIV Golf’s future was an opportunity for the government to reconsider its investment.<\/p>\n

“Obviously there’s speculation in the international media, which does periodically happen, and we’ll wait and see how that all falls out, as it were,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But the upgrade of the golf course is a net public benefit, and you’ll have a world-class quality golf course right next to our world-class [Adelaide] Oval in our world-class Adelaide Parklands and that’s all a good thing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The state government says the $45 million redevelopment of the North Adelaide Public Golf Course will go ahead. (Supplied: SA Government)<\/p>\n

A total of 585 trees will be axed to redevelop the course, but the government says 1,700 replacement trees will be planted.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment, contracted to Greg Norman Golf Course design, required the government to pass laws through state parliament<\/a> and also led to Aboriginal heritage conditions being imposed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

North Adelaide Golf Club president Kevin Naughton said he was not concerned the reports around LIV Golf’s future would deter the government from continuing the project.<\/p>\n

“A lot of work has been done over the last 18 months in designing the course and designing a course that has a fundamental business case that would allow it to operate effectively for the other 51 weeks of the year outside of [the LIV event],” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

LIV Golf is set to move to the North Adelaide Public Golf Course in 2028. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Event would look ‘incredibly different’ without Saudi money<\/p>\n

The Adelaide leg of LIV Golf has been one of the tournament’s biggest successes.<\/a><\/p>\n

It generated roughly 40 per cent of LIV Golf UK’s revenue in 2024, according to documents lodged with UK Companies House last October.<\/p>\n

But that entity’s overall losses were $US461.3 million ($A702 million) in 2024.<\/p>\n

Its losses over three years amounted to $US1.1 billion.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Ashton Hurn said she was “hopeful” there would be clarity over LIV Golf’s future because it was a “good event for South Australia”.<\/p>\n

But she added there were some “big taxpayer dollars on the line here” and the event “would look incredibly different if it didn’t have the big dollars from the Saudi-government”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ashton Hurn says the event is good for South Australia. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n

Asked if she would reconsider the North Adelaide redevelopment if in government, Ms Hurn said: “I think you’d need to.”<\/p>\n

“The context of this redevelopment was really announced in the fanfare of LIV Golf,” she told 891 ABC Adelaide.<\/p>\n

“I think LIV Golf would really underpin the success of this development.<\/p>\n

“If LIV Golf falls over, then certainly the government have an obligation really just to have another look at it.”<\/p>\n

Greens MLC Robert Simms said the reports raised “serious questions” about the state government’s commercial arrangements with the Saudi-backed tour.<\/p>\n

“The government should come clear with the South Australian taxpayer today on the extent of those arrangements \u2014 why not release that information publicly so the public can form a view?” he told 891 ABC Adelaide.<\/p>\n

“It’s not clear to me what the extent of the South Australian taxpayer’s liability will be here if this does in fact fold.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Australian government has reaffirmed its commitment to a $45 million upgrade of the North Adelaide Public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[45464,296637,64,63,24529,9262,296638,6410,14239,34598,3203,85,27066],"class_list":{"0":"post-610148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ashton-hurn","9":"tag-assurance","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-financial-times","13":"tag-golf-course","14":"tag-kevin-naughton","15":"tag-liv","16":"tag-liv-golf","17":"tag-nick-champion","18":"tag-speculation","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-wall-street-journal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}