First Look: LIV Golf South Africa

LIV Golf South Africa is the fifth tournament of the 2026 season and marks the league’s first trip to the continent of Africa. 

BASIC INFO 

2026 LIV GOLF SOUTH AFRICA

When
March 19-22, 2026

Where 
The Club at Steyn City
Midrand/Johannesburg, South Africa

Competition
Four rounds/72 holes of stroke play

Field
57 players - 13 teams of four players each, and five wild cards

Shotgun Start
Local time
Thursday, Rd. 1 - 12:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. ET)
Friday, Rd. 2 - 12:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. ET)
Saturday, Rd. 3 - 12:15 p.m. (6:15 a.m. ET)
Sunday, Rd. 4  - 12:05 p.m. (6:05 a.m. ET)

KEY STORYLINES

LIV Golf makes its first-ever visit to the continent of Africa with this week’s event at The Club at Steyn City north of Johannesburg

Approximately 90,000 tickets have been sold for the four-round tournament, expected to be one of the biggest golf tournaments ever held in South Africa

The all-South African Southern Guards GC - captain Louis Oosthuizen , Dean Burmester, Branden Grace and Charl Schwartzel – were involved in the process of bringing the tournament to their home country as well as providing input on course setup

Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau enters as the latest individual winner, beating Wild Card player Richard T. Lee in a dramatic playoff in Singapore

4Aces GC, captained by Dustin Johnson , have won the last two team trophies after Ripper GC, captained by Cameron Smith, won the first two of the season

Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm, the two-time reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion, enters as the season-long Individual points leader with four straight top-5 finishes, including his win in Hong Kong

First-year LIV Golf players such as Elvis Smylie (winner in Riyadh), Thomas Detry (runner-up in Hong Kong) and Richard T. Lee (runner-up in Singapore) have already made a big impact on this year’s leaderboards

Majesticks Golf Club Co-Captain Lee Westwood, who has won five of his 44 career pro victories in South Africa, comes off his best league finish, a solo third in Singapore, after returning from a wrist injury that sidelined him for the first two events in 2026

Just a handful of players have prior experience competing in Steyn City, while a large part of the 57-man LIV Golf roster will be making their first visit to South Africa.

THE AFRICAN EXPERIENCE 

Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm and Crushers GC Captain Bryson DeChambeau, two of the world’s most popular and gifted golfers, have entertained fans across much of the globe. Now, for the first time in their careers, they will compete in Africa at this week’s LIV Golf South Africa.

“I’m excited. I’ve never been there,” said Rahm, the two-time reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion and current points leader. “It’s one of the aspects of LIV Golf that I love. I’ve always felt very privileged to be able to travel and go to new cities.

“It’s the only continent I haven’t been to. It should be a special week.”

Added DeChambeau: “It’s always been a dream of mine to play in South Africa. I’ve not gotten the chance to do that. To finally go down there and play in a great place that has produced an amazing amount of world-class players and athletes, it’s quite special. Excited to give the fans a LIV Golf experience.”

The tournament at Steyn City just north of Johannesburg will be LIV Golf’s first tournament in Africa and will be the fifth different continent that has hosted one of LIV Golf’s global tournaments.

It will also be the biggest golf tournament in the country in more than two decades. Huge crowds are expected for each of the four rounds, rivaling the record numbers delivered by LIV Golf Adelaide in Australia. Southern Guards GC, the all-South African team captained by Louis Oosthuizen , will have the support of an entire country.

“I know the South African boys are really pumped to have a home event,” said Cameron Smith, captain of the all-Australian Ripper GC. “They're really excited to bring everyone to their country and show what it's all about. That's one of my biggest joys of the year is bringing our league [to Adelaide], just getting people to experience Australia. I think it’s the greatest place on earth, as the South Africans think South Africa is the best place on earth.”

Smith, just like Rahm and DeChambeau, is making his first visit to South Africa. So is new Smash GC Captain Talor Gooch, the 2023 LIV Golf Individual Champion. Gooch won the inaugural Adelaide tournament three years ago and expects the same atmosphere in Steyn City.

“Really excited to get there, see the place and see the crowds and see if they can compete with [Adelaide] for the rowdiest, the most fun,” Gooch said. “No offense to the Aussies, but I think the South Africans are going to try to take the top spot, which is a tall task at hand.”

ABOUT THE COURSE 

THE CLUB AT STEYN CITY

Midrand/Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa 

PAR
71

YARDAGE
7,557

METERS
6,909

Steyn City, which will host the first LIV Golf tournament held on the African continent, is one of the largest golf complexes in South Africa, stretching over 2,000 acres in the outskirts of Johannesburg in the elevated Highveld region

The complex is the creation of the late South African insurance magnate Douw Steyn and includes an array of amenities from lagoons to indigenous parkland

A number of wild species roam the property along the Jukskei River, including impala, antelope and springbok

Jack Nicklaus Design planned the championship course in collaboration with South Africa Golf Data architects Gary Waage and Robbie Marshall 

The course opened in April 2015 and is ranked in the top 50 on the continent of Africa and top 25 in South Africa by top100golfcourses.com.

The club has hosted DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour events, with a handful of current LIV Golf players among the entrants, including Dean Burmester, Laurie Canter and Tom McKibbin

Burmester finished runner-up in the 2022 Steyn City Championship

LIV Golf South Africa will have a routing identity different than what Steyn City members play; tournament holes 1-12 are the members’ 7-18, and the tournament’s 13-18 are the members’ 1-6 

In addition, one of the members’ par-5 holes has been converted to a par 4 

GUARD-ING THE COURSE

The four members of Southern Guards GC provided help with preparing the Steyn City course for its LIV Golf debut. Dean Burmester and Charl Schwartzel played the course, while Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen drove the course with tournament and local officials during site visits the last few months.

Oosthuizen, the Southern Guards captain, said the biggest adjustment involved the width of the fairways. 

“We brought some of them in by 4-5 yards,” he said. “We don’t want guys to just hit driver everywhere. The ball’s going to go far anyway. Definitely narrowed a lot of fairways and grew the rough quite a bit. But there’s still going to be lots of birdies out there. We just tried to make it a little bit tougher.”

FOX SPORTS BROADCAST IN U.S. (all times ET) 

Rd. 1 (Wed, March 19): 6 a.m. - 8 a.m., FS1; 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. FS2

Rd. 2 (Thursday, March 20): 6 a.m. - 8 a.m., FS1; 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. FS2

Rd. 3 (Friday, March 21): 6 a.m. - 11 a.m., FOX

Rd. 4 (Saturday, March 22): 6 a.m. - 11 a.m., FS1 

WEATHER 

Round 1 – High of 78 degrees. Mostly Sunny. 12% chance of precipitation. Winds 5-10 mph North-Northeast

Round 2 – High of 78 degrees. Partly cloudy. 18% chance of precipitation. Winds 5-10 mph North-Northeast.

Round 3 – High of 77 degrees. Mostly sunny. 21% chance of precipitation. Winds 5-10 mph Northeast

Round 4 – High of 74 degrees. Partly cloudy. 24% chance of precipitation. Winds 5-10 mph North-Northeast