While sport minister Gayton McKenzie participated in yesterday’s announcement that LIV Golf was heading to South Africa next year, national federations still reeling from his funding cuts were finalising a unified response.
Local sports officials this week staged an emergency meeting — facilitated by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) — to draw up a battle plan after their annual budgets were slashed by a combined R40m, translating into cuts ranging from 40% to 60% across the board.
There are fears some federations would be unable to survive, with some — nearly four months into the financial year — having already spent cash they thought they’d receive based on earlier three-year agreements with the department of sport, arts & culture (DSAC).
Sascoc is expected to issue a statement in the next day or so, although the Sunday Times has been told one possible retaliation could be to boycott DSAC’s annual sports awards banquet at Sun City next month.
McKenzie and Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi were present at the LIV Golf announcement alongside golfer Louis Oosthuizen and the tour’s CEO Scott O’Neil at the JCB Golf and Country Club, which is hosting this week’s UK 2025 event.
They announced a multi-year deal with LIV, with the first event taking place at Steyn City in Johannesburg from March 20-22.
Ticket prices would be around $30 (R532), McKenzie said, with O’Neil adding entry would be free for children under 12. Three-day ticket packages are available for nearly R2,200.
O’Neil promised that the tour’s top golfers, like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka, would compete at the South African edition.
The Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which has poached the top players from the PGA Tour by throwing ridiculous amounts of money at them, offers generous prize money.
Each LIV event puts up $25m (R444m) in prize money, with $20m going to the individual competition and $5m to the team tournament. This will make the March tournament the richest to be held in South Africa by a long way.
Asked who would foot the bill, Steyn City Properties CEO Steven Louw spoke about a private-public partnership with the Gauteng government, adding that details had yet to be worked out.
O’Neil said LIV Golf had brought “$84m of impact” to Australia last year.
The Sunshine Tour, which stages more than 30 tournaments a year, including events co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, will not be involved with the LIV event.
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