From left, Korean-born golfers Kim Min-kyu, Tune Younger-han, An Byeong-hun and Danny Lee pose collectively on this photograph offered by LIV Golf on Thursday. Yonhap
An Byeong-hun has left the PGA Tour to captain a rebranded LIV Golf workforce that includes three different Korean-born gamers.
LIV Golf introduced Wednesday (U.S. native time) that An will be part of Korean Golf Membership as its captain for the upcoming season.
An, 34, might be joined by two different new faces in Tune Younger-han, a two-time winner in Japan, and Kim Min-kyu, who has received three tournaments on the Korea PGA (KPGA) Tour. The lone returnee for Korean Golf Membership might be Danny Lee, a Korean-born Kiwi.
Tune and Kim every made a cameo in LIV Golf final yr as a brief damage alternative, whereas An had been on the PGA Tour since first incomes his tour card for the 2016-2017 season.
An replaces Korean American veteran Kevin Na as captain of the workforce, which had been known as Iron Heads Golf Membership till its rebranding Monday. Na left LIV Golf amid hypothesis of discontent after unfollowing each LIV Golf and his personal workforce on social media.
The son of Olympic desk tennis medalists Ahn Jae-hyung and Jiao Zhimin, An holds the file because the youngest winner of the distinguished U.S. Newbie, having captured the title at 17 in 2009. He turned professional two years later after which turned the primary Asian winner of the BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour (at the moment DP World Tour) in 2015. He earned that tour’s Rookie of the Yr honor that very same season.
An has earned over $21 million over his PGA Tour profession, essentially the most by an energetic participant and not using a victory.
Internationally, An competed on the Presidents Cup in 2019 and 2024 and represented Korea on the 2016 and 2021 Olympics.
“Becoming a member of LIV Golf is a defining transfer for my future,” stated An, who goes by the English title Ben stateside. “LIV Golf is changing into a number one drive within the recreation and a really international golf league with a transparent imaginative and prescient for the long run; I see an awesome alternative to develop my profession as captain of Korean Golf Membership: to compete on the highest degree, embrace a dynamic workforce surroundings and assist form this new period of the game.”
LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil stated An’s arrival highlights the breakaway tour’s “long-term dedication to and deep perception within the Korean market and the necessary position it performs in shaping the way forward for international golf.”
“Ben represents a technology of elite athletes who worth increasing the sport’s attain, competing on the highest degree on a global stage, and carrying the duty of representing their nation with pleasure,” O’Neil stated.
“That perspective aligns powerfully with our perception that golf’s subsequent period might be outlined by range, ambition, and a rising customary of elite international competitors. Korea has established itself as one of many sport’s most passionate markets, able to producing a pipeline of world-class expertise. Ben personifies the pleasure, self-discipline, and aggressive excellence which have formed that popularity.”
LIV Golf, financed by Saudi Arabia, has lured high-end expertise from the PGA Tour since its launch in 2022. It tracks each particular person participant standings and workforce standings, with every workforce made up of a captain and three different members.
Final yr, Iron Heads completed final amongst 13 groups, with Jang Yu-bin, the 2024 KPGA Tour Participant of the Yr, struggling mightily as the primary Korean nationwide to play in LIV Golf. Jang was pushed out of LIV Golf after ending in 53rd place within the participant standings, with solely the highest 48 retaining their spots for the next season.
LIV Golf held its first match in Korea in Could 2025 at Jack Nicklaus Golf Membership Korea in Incheon, simply west of Seoul. Earlier stories indicated that LIV will return to Korea for Could 29-31 in 2026, however the tour’s official web site didn’t have a Korean cease or every other match in that late Could window as of this writing.
