The winning Ripper GC team of Elvis Smylie, Marc Leishman, Cam Smith and Lucas Herbert.
THE 2026 LIV season kicked off in ideal fashion for the Australian Ripper GC team with wins in Riyadh then on home soil in Adelaide, while Elvis Smylie held off Jon Rahm to claim individual honours in his first event since signing on with the LIV Golf Tour.
Smylie’s victory and outstanding performance in Riyadh, a tournament played under lights in the Saudi Arabian capital, helped guide Ripper to the first team title of the year, before it took a four-man effort at The Grange in Adelaide to make it the perfect start for the Aussie boys over the opening two events of the 2026 LIV schedule.
Captain Cameron Smith and his Ripper GC teammates rallied past Rahm’s Legion XIII team for a two-shot win in Adelaide, their second triumph at home in three years.
“Unreal. So good,” said Smith. “We had a training camp before the season, and this was our goal, to win this event, and we did it. It’s pretty special when you tick off a goal this early in the season.”
The Adelaide victory came a week after Ripper GC also took out team honours in Riyadh, finishing three shots clear of Torque GC, the win built around the 24-under
par individual total produced by Smylie.
The 23-year-old Smylie shot 64 in the last round in Riyadh for what was quite the debut performance.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Smylie. “I wanted to come out here and make a statement. I wanted to prove that I’m one of the best out here, and I feel like I’ve done that. It’s only up from here.”
Dates confirmed for LIV Golf Adelaide 2027
Dates have already been announced for the fifth staging of LIV Golf Adelaide.
Next year’s event will tee off more than a month later than this year’s instalment, with the 2027 tournament scheduled for March 18–21, and at the new venue of the Kooyonga Golf Club.
The Grange has hosted the previous four LIV Golf Adelaide events, and while the South Australian capital will remain the exclusive home to LIV Golf in Australia through at least 2031, the event is set to shift to the redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Course in 2028, a venue located close to the heart of the Adelaide CBD.
LIV Golf Adelaide 2026 set a new attendance record for a professional golf event in Australia with more than 115,000 spectators attending over the four days.
Tickets to next year’s tournament are already on sale.
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