I love sport. The pace, the personalities, the way it brings people together but golf has
always sat just outside of that for me. Something you respect, but don’t quite feel part
of.. Until now.

I first stepped onto the grounds on Thursday and even then before anything had fully
begun there was a quiet certainty about what was coming.

You could feel it in the way everything was being set up. The kind of energy that
suggests you’re about to step into something bigger than expected.

By Saturday, LIV Golf had arrived. I experienced it in a way I didn’t plan to, LIMPING!
Which, in hindsight, might have been the most honest introduction to golf you can have
because no one tells you how much walking is involved. This isn’t a sport you sit and
watch. You follow it. You move with it.

So I limped my way through my first golf event, slower than everyone else and maybe
more present because of it.

I noticed the people. They came dressed. Effortless looks that sat perfectly between
sport and lifestyle. The kind of outfits that make sense on a course but wouldn’t look out
of place at brunch or a day party.

The crowd was loud! Not chaotic, just alive. There was a constant hum of conversation,
music drifting through the space, reactions rising and falling with the game.
It didn’t feel like the quiet, traditional idea of golf. It felt like something else entirely.And
the vibe?

The vibe was vibing.

People moving between spaces, stopping for food, drinks, activations, catching
moments of the game, then drifting into something else. There was no pressure to
understand every play or follow every shot.

That’s what stood out the most. Even if you’re not into golf, there is something for you
here.

Saturday and Sunday was sold out and you could feel it.

Not just in numbers, but in energy. People showed up ready to experience, to socialise,
to be part of something. Brands leaned into that too with activations that felt like part of
the environment.

Everything flowed. There were small interruptions, tthe weather delayed parts of the
concert programming, and I missed Calvin Harris (which I’m still recovering from) but
even that didn’t take away from the experience.

People stayed, they adapted and they kept the energy going.
Somewhere in all of that, I started to notice the sport more. Bryson DeChambeau.

Seeing him in person shifts your understanding. The presence, the focus, the way the
crowd responds. It reminds you that beneath all the lifestyle, this is still an elite sport.
I caught Goldfish on Sunday, which felt like the perfect close.

Local, familiar, grounding the entire experience in something that felt like ours because
for all its global ambition, LIV in South Africa feels like it fits.

That’s the real takeaway, this works. As a golf event and as a lifestyle experience as
well. Something that understands that people don’t come for one thing, they come for
how everything comes together which in this case is the sport, the fashion, the music
and the energy

As I left, still limping, I realised something simple: I didn’t need to understand golf to
enjoy LIV.

I just needed to be part of it and you can too as it was so good that next year’s date is
already set: April 22 – April 25, 2027