Charl Schwartzel raring to go in 2026 LIV Golf campaign

Following a lengthy break and having now had a few weeks of preparation under his belt, LIV Golf Riyadh will officially get the new season underway from 4-7 February.

The target for Schwartzel and Southern Guards GC, formerly known as Stingers GC, is simple – get a couple of wins under the belt, especially on home soil in mid-March.

"Every year you start off with goals to win, it's really what we practise for, it is hard to win and I feel in the modern days there's so many good players. So, but again there's somebody who wins every week and that will be one of my goals to see if I can have one or two wins,” Schwartzel said.

“From the team's side, I feel very excited about the team. I feel like at this stage, there's four guys playing good golf. For like two years there' s always somebody, it was me then I had some issues and I didn't swing well, I couldn't play well. 

“Branden struggling and then sometimes our best player Louis [Oosthuizen] or Dean [Burmester], me and Branden [Grace] will play well and then they play bad, we just had this sort of not getting it all together. 

“But the last couple of tournaments there was something that sparked and the guys are starting to play well and we were talking during this off season and everybody feels in good shape. So, I'm excited about our team for this year."

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The LIV tour will hit SA shores from 19-22 March at the The Club at Steyn City, and the 41-year-old 9-time winner on the Sunshine Tour is confident the spectacle will live up to expectations with over 75 000 tickets sold for the four-day event.

"The South African hype is getting closer now, we are only two months away from the tournament and I can sense with everywhere I go, not just the golf courses, normally people talk to you about golf on a golf course but I could be walking in Sandton City and someone would stop you and say, hey we are coming to the tournament, we're excited,” he added.

“So, it's a lot bigger audience than I have experienced in golf and I just hope that it lives up to expectations."