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AAP
AAP
Steve Larkin

LIV chief Norman hails Adelaide as 2024 dates locked in

LIV Golf's Greg Norman, with SA Premier Peter Malinauskas in the background, hail Adelaide's event. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

LIV Golf chief Greg Norman is hailing Adelaide's tournament as the benchmark of the breakaway tour while pledging to increase crowd numbers at next year's event.

The Grange course in Adelaide's coastal western suburbs will again host Australia's LIV Golf tournament, from April 26-28 next year.

Last year, more than 77,000 spectators attended LIV's inaugural Australian event over three sold-out days at The Grange.

"Our goal is to exceed 30,000 (spectators) a day," Norman told reporters at The Grange on Saturday.

"It's easier said than done ... (but) for us it's the goal we have got to do and that's what we're going to do."

Norman described the Adelaide event as "the highlight tournament" of the LIV season because of the atmosphere, engagement of fans, and younger crowd demographic.

"All those things created a benchmark for the other 13 events we have around the world," said Norman, who is LIV Golf's chief executive and commissioner.

"Every time we talk about the progress going forward ... we talk about the success of LIV Adelaide.

"(It) just created the benchmark of what our platform truly represents - entertainment, sport, fun, fandom."

The inaugural Australian tournament was held amid acrimony between LIV Golf, financed by Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, and the US PGA Tour.

The two bodies have since brokered a peace deal involving a merger framework but details have yet to be released.

"I am not involved in those negotiations ... I don't know what the framework agreement is," Norman said.

"But I do know from our perspective we're looking to the future, we're sending contracts out now three, four, five, seven years.

"(LIV) always wanted to co-exist with any other tour out there to give those players the opportunity to go and do both ... give the players the independent rights to do what they want to do.

"I'm committed to this, I am not going anywhere.

"LIV is not going anywhere, contrary to what you might read in some of the white noise in the media." 

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said last year's LIV Adelaide event poured $64.9 million into state coffers.

Of the 77,076 spectators, 41 per cent came from outside of SA with 37 countries represented.

"My word, it went off," Malinauskas told reporters.

"I can't tell you how rapt we were as a government about how the event performed in the interest of the state.

"People were a bit unsure about what to expect but the moment it got underway, it lit up ... it really captured the world's attention in a way that was beyond our wildest dreams."

The Adelaide event is the first of LIV's 14 tournaments to confirm dates for next year.

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