Report: LIV Golf Targets Korn Ferry Tour Venue For 2024 Tournament

LIV Golf is reportedly looking at staging a 2024 event at The Grove in Tennessee, which is currently the host of a Korn ferry Tour playoff event

The Grove in Tennessee
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Paul Higham
By Paul Higham
published

LIV Golf is reportedly looking at The Grove in Tennessee as a possible host venue for the 2024 season - a course which currently stages a Korn Ferry Tour playoff event.

LIV boss Greg Norman designed the course at College Grove just outside Nashville, which has served has host for the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation for the last two seasons.

The event is already down on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule to be held on 12-15 September 2024, but that could well change if LIV Golf manages to do a deal to stage an event at the same venue.

The Grove has recently been bought by Escalante Golf, a company which owns other courses to have staged LIV event such as The International and Pumpkin Ridge.

The Golf Channel is now reporting that Escalante will decide in the coming weeks whether to continue hosting the Korn Ferry Tour event or instead switch and sign up with LIV Golf.

That backs up the initial report from the Sports Business Journal about LIV Golf looking to hold an event at The Grove.

And we've seen from previous experience that it is one or the other as far as holding LIV Golf or PGA Tour-based events - notably when Mayakoba Resort’s El Camaleon Golf Course hosted the first LIV event of the season.

The PGA Tour then switched the regular event held there to Tiger Woods' El Cardonal course in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for this season.

It was also a similar story over in Europe when former Ryder Cup host venue Valderrama signed up with LIV Golf after being a long-time host of a DP World Tour event.

The Simmons Bank Open is still the one listed for The Grove though, with a spokesperson for the Korn Ferry Tour telling GolfChannel.com that they fully plan for the event to go ahead as scheduled.

“We are fortunate to have top-tier partners in Simmons Bank, Brandt and Mandy Snedeker and the Tennessee Golf Foundation," read the Korn Ferry Tour statment.

"The Nashville community has shown its support for the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation since day one and we are confident we will find the best long-term solution for the tournament and the Korn Ferry Tour.”

Golf Monthly has contacted LIV Golf for comment.

Paul Higham
Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush. 

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