LIV Golf Korea Team Power Rankings

LIV Golf wraps up the first half of the 2025 season with this week’s LIV Golf Korea presented by Coupang Play, the seventh tournament during the 14-event league schedule.

KEY STORYLINES

• LIV Golf makes its first visit to South Korea, which becomes the 10th different country to host a LIV Golf tournament

• LIV Golf Korea marks the halfway point of the 2025 season, with six regular-season tournaments and the Michigan Team Championship scheduled for the second half

• Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea becomes the first course to host both a LIV Golf tournament and a Presidents Cup

• Seven full-time LIV Golf players have won professional tournaments in Korea – Brooks Koepka, Graeme McDowell, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Yubin Jang, Lee Westwood and Marc Leishman

• 10 players who competed in the 2015 Presidents Cup held at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea are in the field – International Team members Branden Grace, Anirban Lahiri, Danny Lee, Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, and United States Team members Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson

• Season-long points leader Joaquin Niemann, captain of Torque GC, will seek his fourth individual win of the season after his victory in Mexico City that clinched the LIV Golf exemption for the U.S. Open in June

• Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII won their second tournament of the season in Mexico City and have vaulted to the top of the season-long team standings

• Korea marks the final LIV Golf event before golf’s next major, the PGA Championship, in which 12 LIV Golf players are scheduled to compete

Iron Heads GC Captain Kevin Na describes this week’s LIV Golf Korea presented by Coupang Play as his team’s “major” – and with good reason.

Three members of the Iron Heads were born in Korea – Na in Seoul; Yubin Jang in the suburb of Gyeonggi-do; and Danny Lee, born and raised in Incheon, the site of Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea where this week’s tournament will be held.

“Having LIV Golf held in my hometown Incheon, it doesn’t get more special than this,” said Lee. “I was born in Incheon and live there until I was in elementary school. That’s why LIV Golf being held in Incheon feels incredibly meaningful to me. The fact that I’ll be competing there alongside the world’s top players still feels surreal, and I can’t wait to play in front of the fans.”

Na, an original LIV Golf member, has encouraged the league to play in South Korea, especially with golf’s popularity booming in the country in recent years. Nearly 17% of adults (6.24 million people) participated in the sport at least once during the 2023 calendar year.

“I’m thrilled to finally be able to show Korean fans the unique culture and gameplay that LIV Golf offers,” Na said, adding that “it’s a completely different style from traditional golf, and it’s bound to be a refreshing change. Especially in Korea, where there’s a growing number of golf fans in their 20s and 30s, I think the response will be even stronger. LIV Golf is truly appealing to the younger generation.”

The Iron Heads hope that enthusiastic home support will lead to their first-ever team title. Lee is the only team member to celebrate a trophy, having won the individual title in Tucson in 2023.

“Having three players born in Korea on the same team and representing Asia makes this really meaningful,” Lee said. “Whether it’s in the team competition or the individual format, if we can deliver a strong performance, I’d love to share that joy with our fans.”

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ABOUT THE COURSE

JACK NICKLAUS GOLF CLUB KOREA

Incheon, South Korea

Par 72

Yardage 7 344

Meters 6 715

• Nicklaus Design, headed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, designed the course that opened in October 2010 and is among the 25 worldwide Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses

• The course is the focal point of the Songdo International Business District’s environmentally focused green space program and is an annual World Golf Awards nominee for South Korea’s Best Golf Course

• A variety of notable tournaments across multiple tours have been played at the course, including the 2015 Presidents Cup – the first one played in Asia – and the International Crown, an eight-nation team event on the LPGA Tour

• Ten current LIV Golf players competed in the Presidents Cup – four on the winning US team and six for the International team

• Stinger GC Captain Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa was the most productive player on either team, winning four matches and tying one for 4.5 points for the International Team

• HyFlyers GC Captain Phil Mickelson was the most productive player for the US, with 3.5 points in his four matches played

• More than half the holes feature ponds or lakes that come into play, including three of the four par-3 holes

Golf Digest named it as the fourth best course in South Korea, writing: “This is an impressive Nicklaus design, one that transformed a flat, dull site into a surprisingly rolling, pine-dotted layout with water on 11 holes, equitably distributed with six hazards to the left and five to the right.”

The seventh event of the 2025 LIV Golf season kicks off this week at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club. Let's break down the teams and preview the action.

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POWER RANKINGS

1 Legion XIII reclaims their top spot in this week’s Power Rankings following their fourth top-2 finish of the year and first victory since the season-opening event. Captain Jon Rahm is still in search of his first individual win of the year but his consistency has been impressive as he’s posted 11 consecutive top-10 finishes in LIV Golf events he has played in dating back to last year. Tyrrell Hatton is also coming off his best result of the year (T5). Predicted order of finish: Rahm, Hatton, McKibbin, Surratt

2 Although Ripper GC was unable to hold onto their 36-hole lead in Mexico City, they were five strokes clear of third place and now have four podium finishes through six tournaments. Lucas Herbert led the way with a T2 result amongst a star-studded top of the leaderboard and is up to fourth in the individual standings. Cameron Smith has posted a better finish in four consecutive events. Predicted order of finish: Herbert, Leishman, Smith, Jones

3 Crushers GC will look to bounce back from a disappointing final round that saw them fall from second to fifth place Sunday. Captain Bryson DeChambeau looked like he might pick up his first victory of the year but stumbled late to share runner-up honors with Herbert. This team has developed more consistency as the season has gone on, with every player finishing in the top 30 in each of the last two events. Predicted order of finish: DeChambeau, Casey, Lahiri, Howell

4 The three best finishes this year for 4Aces GC have come over the last three tournaments and it’s safe to say that it has been a team effort. Harold Varner III extended his streak of finishes in the top half of the field to six and every player posted a top 20 in Mexico City. Captain Dustin Johnson has certainly done his part as of late with top 10s in two of the last three. Predicted order of finish: Reed, Johnson, Pieters, Varner III

5 Torque GC is coming off a third-place finish last week for their second podium finish of the year. Joaquin Niemann picked up his third victory already as he’s putting together a record-breaking campaign. That’s overshadowed an impressive season by Sebastian Munoz, who leads the team with four top 10s. If Mito Pereira gets going, the ceiling is sky high for this group, but he currently sits in the drop zone. Predicted order of finish: Ortiz, Niemann, Munoz, Pereira

6 Moving up two spots in this week’s rankings we find Stinger GC. The group has one runner-up result and outside of that they’ve been right around the middle of the pack. At age 40, Charl Schwartzel is having a resurgence as his pair of top 10s has already matched last year’s total. We also can’t forget his countrymate Dean Burmester, who is one spot above him in the individual standings in eighth place. Predicted order of finish: Schwartzel, Burmester, Oosthuizen, Grace

7 Smash GC is coming off their best finish of the season to give them a slight bump in the rankings, although the team probably has its eyes on better than a sixth-place result. Talor Gooch was the catalyst with a second straight top-15 finish, while Brooks Koepka is looking for more consistent results as he has three finishes outside the top-half of the field. Graeme McDowell bounced back from two subpar efforts for his second top-20 finish of the year in Mexico City. Predicted order of finish: Koepka, Gooch, Kokrak, McDowell

8 Falling three spots in this week’s Power Rankings is Fireballs GC, who continue to be the most difficult team to predict. They’re coming off their worst showing of the year in which Sergio Garcia surprisingly bested only three golfers. David Puig continues to chug along with a sixth consecutive top-20 results and that moves him up to seventh in the individual standings. The team has three wins and three finishes of fifth or worse. Talk about feast or famine. Predicted order of finish: Garcia, Puig, Masaveu, Ancer

9 It may have only been a ninth-place finish for RangeGoats GC last week but their 2-under final round tied for the second best of the day as they look to build momentum heading to Korea. Ben Campbell withdrew due to a wrist injury after Round 1 and was replaced by John Catlin. He’s a possible candidate to fill in for Campbell, who is aiming to return in June. Bubba Watson got things going last time out for his first top-10 finish of the year. Predicted order of finish: Uihlein, Watson, Catlin, Wolff

10 Speaking of momentum, that has been slashed when it comes to HyFlyers GC, whose 10th-place showing in Mexico City was their worst since the season opener. Cameron Tringale had a rare off week, while the main culprit has been Andy Ogletree as he’s right on the border of the Drop Zone currently. Phil Mickelson posted yet another finish in the top half of the field which has him 14th in the individual standings. Predicted order of finish: Tringale, Steele, Mickelson, Ogletree

11 This is the point of the Power Rankings where the optimism starts to dwindle. Cleeks Golf Club has finished 11th or 12th in five consecutive tournaments. The plus side is they’ve avoided a last-place result and Richard Bland now has three top-15s while Frederik Kjettrup’s T30 last week was his best of the year. The team really needs to Adrian Meronk to find his early season form in order to exceed expectations. Predicted order of finish: Meronk, Bland, Kaymer, Kjettrup

12 Iron Heads GC were a distant last by 10 strokes in Mexico City as Danny Lee, Kevin Na and Yubin Jang all finished outside the top 40. Jinichiro Kozuma made his return after missing the first five events and showed little signs of rust with a 21st-place result. The team should also benefit from Na and Jang and returning to Korea. That’s enough for them to avoid the last spot in the rankings. Predicted order of finish: Na, Kozuma, Jang, Lee

13 Speaking of which, that’s where we find Majesticks GC in the rankings once again, although they did end their three tournament stretch of last place results with a 12th-place finish last week. Sam Horsfield leads the team in 29th-place in the individual standings, which gives a good sense of where this team is at. Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter both currently sit in the Drop Zone. Predicted order of finish: Horsfield, Poulter, Stenson, Westwood