LIV Golf reveal first signing ahead of 2025 season

With high profile signings proving harder to come by, LIV Golf chiefs have been looking towards the future as they fill out their roster for 2025.

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were the two big name defectors last year, but the rumours of big names jumping ship from the PGA Tour once more cooled after Tony Finau denied talk of an imminent move.

It means that, with relegated and out-of-contract players to replace, LIV bosses are instead focusing their energy on emerging talents ahead of February’s season-opener in Riyadh.

That has certainly been the case for Kevin Na’s Iron Heads GC outfit.

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In the first signing before the 2025 season, Na has brought in 22-year-old Yubin Jang, the No.1 ranked player on the Korean Tour.

Jang, a three-time Korean Tour winner who won gold in the 2023 Asian Games, replaces the relegated Scott Vincent, joining New Zealand’s Danny Lee and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma on Na’s team.

“As a promising young talent from Korea, I’ve been following his career for years and have had my eye on him to join the team,” Na said. “The Iron Heads needed young talent like his to push our veterans, and I’m confident he has what it takes to become a world-class golfer.

“Yubin’s presence shows young Korean golfers a clear path to competing globally against the best, and with an event in Korea this year, his addition is a major boost for our team. It’s an incredibly exciting time for Korean golf.”

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Na also explained how he persuaded Jang that LIV was a better proposition than attempting to make the PGA Tour at this stage of his career. Jang was preparing to play the PGA Tour’s Q School before signing a “multi-year deal” with the Saudi-backed breakaway league.

“I just told him this is the right move for him,” Na added. “He obviously had thoughts of going to the U.S. tour and I said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s no guarantee you’re going straight to the top level and playing. It takes a few years, maybe on the Korn Ferry Tour, maybe a year. And then it’ll take maybe another year or two to get to the elevated events.

“‘Or you can come straight here, get a multi-year deal, you’re going to play against the best in the world, and the best fields in golf. Majors? Well, it’s coming, don’t worry.’

“He liked everything I had to say, and obviously he looks up to me as a fellow Korean and he wanted to follow what I’m doing out here.

“I said, ‘Once you commit to me, there’s no backing out. You keep your word and we’re going all the way.’ He’s very mature. He didn’t give me an answer right away. He goes, ‘Can you give me a few days to think about it?’ I said, I’ll give you a week.

“He called me back and said, ‘I’m in.’ I said, ‘No backing out. We’re going all the way.’”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.