Excitement for the event has been building, evidenced by the close to 100 000 tickets already sold. “You can expect the best LIV Golf experience in the history of LIV Golf. You come into South Africa, the best country in the world, you are not just going to see golf, you are going to feel an experience, we are going to show you the Big Five, we are going to show you the cradle the humankind, we are going to show you the deepest minds. We are going to give you what we call ‘gees’. We are the best country in the world, LIV Golf, you are in for a surprise,” said South Africa’s Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie. Speaking ahead of the tournament, Legion XIII captain Jon Rahm said he is looking forward to playing in South Africa for the first time in his career. “I’m excited. I’ve never been there. 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,” said Rahm (via LIV Golf League). Crushers GC captain Bryson DeChambeau shared similar sentiments to Rahm, adding that they are looking forward to giving fans a LIV experience. DeChambeau will also be playing in South Africa for the first time. “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,” he said (via LIV Golf League). The all-South African Southern Guards GC of Louis Oosthuizen (captain), 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 the course set-up. Oosthuizen said adjustments were made to the width of the fairways. “We brought some of them in by 4-5 yards. 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,” he said (via LIV Golf League).