{"id":1986,"date":"2026-04-30T06:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/1986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T06:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:54:14","slug":"sa-premier-compares-course-upgrade-for-in-doubt-liv-golf-with-similar-afl-gather-round-investments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/1986\/","title":{"rendered":"SA premier compares course upgrade for in-doubt LIV Golf with similar AFL Gather Round investments"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australia’s premier says a controversial $45 million redevelopment of the North Adelaide golf course is still worth pursuing despite major doubts about the future of LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

Peter Malinauskas has compared the project to a similar investment at Barossa Park which hosted two AFL Gather Round matches in 2025 and 2026 after Lyndoch oval was upgraded.<\/p>\n

In February last year, the state government announced a major upgrade of the North Adelaide<\/a> course on the presumption it would host future LIV Golf tournaments.<\/p>\n

Overnight, there have been further reports<\/a> that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was preparing to pull finances from LIV Golf and a planned event in the US was postponed.<\/p>\n

Mr Malinauskas said he had spoken to LIV Golf’s chief executive Scott O’Neil last Monday after speculation about the future of the Saudi-funded tournament.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Premier Peter Malinauskas speaking to the media at Barossa Park on Thursday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

However, he said he had no more information beyond what he had read in the media.<\/p>\n

“Needless to say, we are monitoring it very closely and naturally we always assess our options,” the premier said on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We’ll wait and see how things play out in the coming days.”<\/p>\n

He said Mr O’Neil had assured him<\/a> Adelaide was still scheduled to host LIV Golf at Kooyonga Golf Club next year.<\/p>\n

“They made it very clear they’re committed to the future, including the 2027 event in Adelaide,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now we haven’t received any official position otherwise since then.”<\/p>\n

\"Fans<\/p>\n

LIV Golf previously committed to staying in Adelaide until 2031. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘Public asset’ for community<\/p>\n

During a press conference at Lyndoch, Mr Malinauskas outlined comparisons between the North Adelaide golf course and Barossa Park.<\/p>\n

While the Barossa Park project has been largely uncontroversial<\/a> and the centre is used by local sporting groups in the 51 weeks the AFL is not playing games there, there have been protests at the North Adelaide golf course, mainly because it will involve cutting down about 600 trees in the park lands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Malinauskas said the new North Adelaide golf course would similarly be open to the public, and that golf was more likely to attract tourists throughout the year.<\/p>\n

“The truth is the same opportunity is before us at North Adelaide and that is why the government has committed to invest in a public, community sports facility that every week of the year will be available for the South Australian public to use and in the event that we have major tournaments we can use it to promote our city and our state,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A protester against the North Adelaide golf course redevelopment. (ABC News: Angelique Donnellan)<\/p>\n

Last February, Mr Malinauskas said LIV Golf committing to play at North Adelaide from 2028\u20132031 justified the investment<\/a> in the golf course.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t want to invest heavily in North Adelaide and face the prospect of it being lost from South Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This gives us the security that it requires to be able to justify that investment.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, he said the project remained worthwhile.<\/p>\n

“We believe that there is a strong case for making an investment into a public asset for the people of the state, but particularly considering that it will be a drawcard for tourists in the heart of our city year-round week-in, week-out regardless of whether or not there’s a tournament there.”<\/p>\n

The state government took control of the North Adelaide golf course from the Adelaide City Council on Monday and work has already started on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trees are expected to be cut down as part of the North Adelaide golf course redevelopment. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)<\/p>\n

Call for work to stop<\/p>\n

The opposition and the Greens have each said work on the North Adelaide golf course should stop, with Liberal leader Ashton Hurn urging for the funds to be used elsewhere.<\/p>\n

“Without having an event like LIV Golf, it’s hard to see how $45 million is justifiable,” Ms Hurn said.<\/p>\n

“This is taxpayer funds at a time where we’ve got record debt in South Australia, we’ve got emergency departments right across regional SA that are closing<\/a>, and people are crying out for cost-of-living relief.”<\/p>\n

Greens MLC Robert Simms said it was not too late for the government to change course and “stop the chop”.<\/p>\n

“The business case for this redevelopment has totally evaporated,” Mr Simms said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australia’s premier says a controversial $45 million redevelopment of the North Adelaide golf course is still worth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,3140,1921,3139,1354,1358,318,317,3138,1360],"class_list":{"0":"post-1986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-cancelled","10":"tag-event","11":"tag-funding","12":"tag-liv-golf","13":"tag-north-adelaide","14":"tag-peter-malinauskas","15":"tag-premier","16":"tag-public-investment-fund","17":"tag-saudi-arabia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}