Is Another Big PGA TOUR Star Jumping to LIV?

Another major PGA TOUR star may be on the brink of joining LIV—and the ripple effects could reshape both leagues.

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In this week’s episode of The Golf Podcast we’ll break down the latest—and potentially most impactful—rumor in the ongoing PGA TOUR vs. LIV Golf saga this year. Reports indicate that another major PGA TOUR player may be in late-stage talks with LIV Golf, and the implications go far beyond a simple signing. We discuss how Si Woo Kim has become the center of these negotiations, why his possible move could lead to Kevin Na being stripped of his LIV captaincy, and what it would mean for the newly rebranded Becko East team heading into the 2026 season. We also dive into the speculation surrounding other big South Korean names like Sungjae Im and Tom Kim, what’s confirmed, what’s been debunked, and what still feels very much in play. From LIV’s push toward a more global team identity to the PGA TOUR’s potential reduced schedule, structural overhaul, and growing player frustration, we explore how these shifts may influence future defections. We also touch on the swirling rumors about Brooks Koepka’s contract, the PGA TOUR’s reaction to LIV’s momentum, and how looming OWGR changes could reshape both leagues. It’s a packed episode with breaking news, player reactions, and plenty of context to understand what this next wave of movement could mean for professional golf.

#golf #livgolf #pgatour #golfer #golflife

All right, so we now have indication that another big name from the PGA Tour is in the final stages of talks to make the move over to Liv. But that isn’t even the biggest part of this. It’s the potential of who he may be bringing with him and what it might mean for the Liv team where we could even see Kevin Na being stripped of his captaincy in order to make this move happen. And we’re going to break through this room. We’re going to see everything that was said, but it’s even more important, what does this mean? What does this mean for Liv’s ability to still attract big talent? Or if the if this doesn’t happen, what does it mean for their inability to bring in big names? Because we haven’t seen a big name come over in a while. And does this potentially fill the hole if we do see Brooks Kepka leave? because now there’s indications that he may sit out the final year of his contract next year and then make the move back to the PGA Tour right immediately following that. And could some of this also be tied in to the big news of players not being really happy with the overall direction the PGA Tour is headed? This is something we’ve talked a little bit about when it comes to the possibility of a much more reduced schedule. So, there’s definitely a lot here that we’ve got to dig into. We’ve got a lot of potential, like I said, rumors to get into. There’s been even some of the players themselves coming out and calling some of this fake news. So, is it real? Is it fake? What is it? We’ve got a lot to talk about. But, of course, first we want to thank this week’s sponsor, Titleist. And guys, if you’re looking for that great even last minute gift for the golfers in your life or maybe even just something for yourself, then of course the Prov1 and Pro1X golf balls are the number one gift in golf. 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And the initial text, the initial tweet that went out was uh Sew Kim is in latestage negotiations to join Iron Heads uh golf club on the Liv Golf League along with another highprofile South Korean PJ tour member. It’s unclear what’s holding up the deal, but league sources are confident it will be agreed before the 2026 season starts. Now, put a pin in for a second. We’re going to come back to it. The mention there of the another high-profile South Korean golfer caused what was the rumor mill to take it to the next level. And that is where Sunj I comes in. Put a pin in it. I’m going to come right back to it. But I want to go even deeper into what this would mean for the team because here’s where Kevin Na comes in. So following up on that, just a couple hours later, Flushing It reported again, they said Sew Kim’s potential deal with Live Golf would be to take equity in the rebranded Beco East golf club, which was will be formerly the Iron Heads Golf Club, stripping Kevin Na of his captaincy. Sources indicate the holdup is due to Seiwoo wanting to bring in his own players with only Danny Lee’s position being secure for the 2026 season out of the current lineup. So what that means is out of the current lineup of Iron Heads, you would see Kevin Na, all you know, three out of four being on the chopping block, only Danny Lee staying. Then you’d have Seu Kim coming in as the new captain and bringing in additional players. And that’s like I said where the rumor mill started flying because when it comes to like you know household names you know South Korean golfers there’s only a few and at the top of that list is Sunj Im. Yeah. So I mean if it if it’s a move it’s going to be a big one. Yeah. I mean Seu hasn’t had that bad of a career. He’s still pretty active. He’s I checked his stats earlier. He’s made you know I think he’s got a one win in the last three years. He’s a cut maker. Guy makes like 20 to 25 cuts a year on the PGA Tour. So he’s he’s also a force to be reckon reckoned with in the President’s Cup 100% know which could be on the table. Look at these stats. Four-time PGA Tour winner. He finished 37th in the FedEx Cup standings in 2025. He won the players championship. He was the youngest player to do so in 2017. And he’s got a career winnings on the PGA Tour of over $30 million. So I mean he’s not he’s not an end of the career guy making his victory lap at live. No. No. by all certain is a good strategic move by Liv maybe to shake things up but also what it and we’re going to come back to this but it what it potentially indicates is we’ve seen a lot of reports of players being upset and this is something we went over on the podcast before and I’m sure as it continues to unfold unfold we’ll continue to talk about it but this potential structure now now you have uh Tiger Woods is involved and and he even said you know you got to basically break some eggs you know to make an omelette and he knows some people might be upset but we’re looking at a a dramatically reduced potential PGA Tour schedule, potential of getting rid of like the idea of elevated and regular events and just having, you know, premier events, starting the the season much later and really chopping down the overall field size. And it makes you kind of wonder if you’re a guy like Sew Kim or whatever. Now, 37th is still pretty far up there in the FedEx Cup standings, but let’s say you were someone who’s floating around in that 50th or lower, maybe it makes sense. It’s a there might be more security in signing a contract in general. And I’m not even trying to say that in a way of saying like live is more secure because it’s the lesser product. I mean, I understand people try to make that whatever. What I’m more so saying is from a business standpoint, the potential of yeartoyear trying to make sure that you stay high enough that you stay in it versus if you do sign a contract three, whatever, four years, there’s some security there. like you know like it or not like there’s some guys who might be just thinking like hey especially if a guy is towards maybe the end of their career I would still say he’s in the middle of it but if somebody was towards the end and say like hey I could sign a deal that guarantees me four years you know with the PGA tour becoming that much more cutthroat maybe it’s worth it it’s tempting too plus you think about the ge geographical maybe it’s it’s it’s more appealing for sew Kim to play you know more more international series um you know things like that so I And maybe I mean money you said 30 million over his career. Um he hasn’t been really making huge splash but his stats are decent. I mean look what if Liv comes to him and offers him 30 million. I was just going to say everything you made everything you made and and I do think that if this is the reality it sure does continue to double down on the idea that Liv’s real commitment is to make a much more international pres presence which we’ve heard from their their directly from their mouth which is something we’ve talked about and speculated on many times. if their continuation is to look to attract international players and build out these teams kind of almost around nationality, you know, having like the Spanish, you know, team with Rom and then having, you know, a South Korean team, you know, that could also help develop fandom, you know, you you’re going to start to see like different nationalities attached to different teams. So, who knows? But the one thing we do have to address is this idea of Sunjm because and I think where this came from when he’s they said another highprofile South Korean uh immediately you know a big name on tour is Sunjm but it was shot down pretty darn quickly. So first uh one source close to Sunjm immediately told Sports Illustrated that there is a 0% chance that he’s leaving the PGA Tour. And then from the horse’s mouth himself, we saw right on his uh Instagram story, Sunjm posting fake news and saying that it’s not him. So, um I think that that was like something that this is where it can be so tough to sort out what is reality and what is not. What is rumor mill and what is headlines for the sake of headlines and what is really truly insiders. You know, we know that some of these accounts like Flushing It do have a direct line to some of play the players and their agents. And I think that when one speculation mill starts running in the rumor mill that it can kind of t you know put like a damper on everything where now everything seems like it’s not true. So we do have to kind of weigh what sounds more real and what doesn’t. But right here we had immediately he comes out it’s not true. We have not had that from Siwu Kim. So, so he didn’t Siwuk Kim has not come out and said that this isn’t true. It’s Sunjm who did. And I think that’s where sometimes it can get confusing of like it’s so rapid fire which player said what right there like it’s, you know, it’s that’s off the table. But the Seiw Kim thing is still very much in play. Let me ask you about Tom Kim now. I mean, another South Korean who’s a hot name on tour. Uh not a great year last year from what I remember. I don’t think he did much. Could he be a possibility? You know. Yeah, but you know what? Tom Kim. Uh, he was pretty electric at TGL, right? He’s in TGL. Yeah. And I I I remember like that was some of the the some of the most exciting stuff was is his personality there. I don’t know. Technically, we haven’t heard anything as of when we’re recording this. This is breaking news. Um, nothing has come from Tom Kim, but he is one of those names that is now on the tip of everyone’s tongue because another South Korean golfer that could potentially really make that a strong team. Who knows? Um, but you have to say like here’s a guy like how much because if TGL being so intimately tied with the PGA Tour like he could be like he can lose your spot on that team too and what we don’t know what the inner workings look like there. or was there is there any type of contract or whatever it may be. But similarly, you got to think for some of these guys, if it’s attractive enough, you know, and if the deal is big enough from Liv, then I I feel like at least they have to entertain it, especially with now we’re even seeing reports coming from Scott O’Neal that they’re even closer to getting official World Golf rankings, which gives these guys their ways into, you know, majors and things. So, speaking of the enticingness of the deal, let’s talk a little bit about that because we got to talk about, you know, what’s in play and and what would happen with with Kevin Na. So, the according to uh like I said, according to Flushing It, um Tom Kim, like I said, wants to bring his own players in. We talked about that rebranding of of Beco East uh to be the new name for formerly Iron Heads. Um, but what it looks like is that not only would there potentially be some sort of signing deal, but now Seiwoo Kim would have equity in the team itself. So the another thing, like I said, if you’re thinking kind of long term and the overall value of this, then you have to be thinking that equity is is that X factor that could take it that much further. So if it really does happen, but part of this reason is is Liv has shown this very startuplike culture of being willing to change, adapt and do whatever they need to do to keep the the momentum forward. What I mean by that is even now going to four days complete restructuring from a three rounds to four rounds. Uh doing that largely I think to get world golf you know ranking points. But here you had the Iron Heads coming in dead last last year. And as they try to make these the the league even more competitive, we see like captains even being relegated out of the league. And they’re just let go. Well, yeah. I mean, relegated out. Yeah. They would be let go. But the and and we don’t have because it’s a it’s private. We don’t know the exact verbatim wording of their contracts. But if they want to continue to make it more and more of a competitive league where people they feel like they’re playing to stay there, well then if the idea that even a cap even someone can be stripped of the captaincy and the entire team be restructured, that’s motivation that you got to build a great team of guys around you and you got to win. Absolutely. And that that’s something that could show. Like I said, it adds more introduces more drama to the league. So, I do not think it’s the worst idea for them to take the worst performing team, wipe the slate, lose their tour cards, right? Re rebrand it. Now, there’s other name other teams also that are going through possible rebrandings, new names and things like that, which I think, okay, it shows adapting. It shows those types of things, but um it could be it could be, like I said, a wildly different approach with an entirely new team, you know, structure and team name come as soon as next year. Wow. That quick, huh? as as soon as next year. So, um I see like Liv makes moves and they make them quick. That’s what I’m saying. I mean, I think they’re at least showing that they’re willing to ch make the changes they the adaptations they need in this early time. But now, I mean, even as structured and legacy as the PGA Tour is as a response to that, look how quickly PGA Tour is making changes, right? Including this huge potential shakeup of the the schedule. So, I want to talk more about that. I want to talk about how Brooks Kepka ties in. Let’s do a quick word from our sponsor and get right back into that. All right, you’re probably still in holiday shopping mode. We’re getting close, but you could still pull off some great gifts with everything that FootJoy has to offer. Head to toe. Whether it’s, you know, their hats, snow, winter hats, even they got great winter hats. Uh, they even got their own great gift guide right on their website. 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The last bit of information we got from this came from the hero where Tiger was there and gave some indication. Uh now Tiger, like I said, is very involved in the future of the PGA Tour and where it’s headed. But it and it’s something that we’ve, like I said, we’ve talked a little bit about, we’ve touched on here on the podcast, but just kind of bringing everyone up to speed, there seems to be this indication that come 2027, you’re going to see a very big change to the PGA Tour schedule, even with the tour starting much later into the season, like potentially getting rid of the entire Hawaii swing, starting, you know, after the Super Bowl, trying to, as they say, maybe not compete with the NFL. This could also be we could see it where there are uh less players retaining their tour card because we get to a point where it’s just completely structured. You know, I’m sorry, elevated events. And it’s funny, I I actually saw a really, you know, smart take uh the other day from the Foreplay podcast. Um they were talking about, you know, even just the idea of branding some of the events as elevated is is kind of silly because it then infers that the other events are, you know what I mean, are lesser or whatever. So there’s that. But I can see how this would potentially create motivation for players who are not, you know, those, you know, top 30, top even maybe 50 names on the consistently on the PGA Tour that might, you know, with that and the combination of Liv getting official World Golf rankings. if they were those kind of fence sitters and like just wasn’t sure where they were going to go, this could be an indication being like, hey, Liv is becoming more attractive, you know, as that PGA Tour becomes that, you know, and it’s it like I said, not all the players are happy with with this idea. So, um, some quotes that just came out of it, some player reactions. Uh, Tom Hogi said, “The beauty of playing, uh, the PGA Tour is that if you want to take a month off, you can, and if you want to play four weeks in a row, you can. I don’t love this idea of a reduced schedule. So again, this might be kind of player specific, opinion specific, because I get what he’s saying and and it can be a grind and it can be grueling and there’s really truly no sport like golf in this way that you could commit to playing four tournaments and it could end up costing you money because you miss all the cuts, right? versus you say like with more regular, you know, schedule structured sports like baseball, football, you you you have your schedule and the players can’t just take a couple weeks off and decide which games they want to play. You can’t do that. But they’re also paid regularly as part of contracts here. Players do need to weigh in like what is like is this does this course like suit me? Do I play well there? Am I going to end up missing the cut? So, there’s that. Um then kind of even putting it more simply, uh Ryan Palmer simply said this is not growing the game of golf. So there’s been push back and like I said, Tiger has said himself that he knows you got to break some eggs to make a good omelette. He knows that that some guys are not going to love it. And if you notice, you know, even with that, it’s like it could be the positionally where they are. like a guy like a guy who’s consistently in the mix, Scotty Sheffler, Roy Moy might, and I’m speaking for them because I don’t know, but like maybe they like the idea of a reduced schedule. They know they’re going to they’re keeping their card. They know they’re going to be in the mix and now they’re playing just, you know, 18 events a year or 15 events and they’re all for big money. Who knows? Those guys are the the the the separate. It’s the guys probably like uh like look at Ricky Fowler. He’s fell off so much from a competitive standpoint. He kind of needs the smaller events I feel like to keep going. He hasn’t been at many majors in the last year. Like so does it kind of screw over those guys, right? And that’s the question like as the structure is now even you think about like the late season, the RSM things like that where these guys have these last chances to kind of get that win and whatever. Like I said, it’s something to put a pin in. We’re going to come back to it. We’re going to do a whole another show on it as we get more information. Right now, it’s speculation, but the writing seems to be on the wall that there’s going to be a big change. The other thing too is on the live side, the big news that we’re going to continue to keep an eye on is this idea with Brooks Kepka. There’s a lot a lot of speculation out there that Kepka has one more year on his contract and there’s even been some talk that that Kepka might intentionally sit it out this season, which I don’t even know how that would work because with the players on the team, but using that time to renegotiate with the PGA Tour to get back on tour. Now, is that is that what he wants? That’s the thing, like none of us really know that and and Kepka is not always the most upfront with uh you know, giving us that information or running to give us that information. He’s a very direct guy, but it’s not always like he’s just running to give that information. But, you know, and I’ve seen tons of speculation online of of people saying like if they are in the pro PGA Tour camp and they say that this could be the way that the PG tour could put a a big nail in the coffin for Liv, if they just took him right back. But I don’t even know if that’s necessarily true. Like, he hasn’t been playing or performing the way he has in the past. But um the only real indication we got directly from the new CEO, Scott O’Neal, uh and you’re gonna have to a little bit read between the lines on this quote, but he said, “I know you’re not going to want to hear this one, just the individual players, and this goes back to our policy. We’re just going to run it through. So, we haven’t made any announcements on players, but he is signed for 2026.” And that was his in his response to whether or not Kepka was going to be staying with the league. And really only he’s given you towards the end is that yeah, he’s signed through 2026. But that’s not to me if I read that line, there’s not a lot of hope there sounding like, oh, the rumors aren’t true or he’s he’s definitely staying. He loves it here. I’m just hearing like kind of boilerplate language that it don’t sound good. I wonder if he’s like the biggest regret guy cuz I mean you look at his performance pre-live. Yeah. Four majors dominant in the limelight, you know, on he’s he’s on TV stuff that he probably likes. Yeah. Um to going to a place where people can’t really watch him hasn’t been playing well and then when he gets to these majors missed the RDER Cup couple years. Yeah. And I think though, Kepka, it’s very tough to read because he’s a guy who who sometimes lets his frustration speak. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he his long-term belief is because I think there’s a lot that he liked about Liv, but I mean, you just go right back to the words he said like on that, you know, the Netflix series where he was kind of indicating that if he hadn’t been injured and hadn’t been unaware where, you know, his tour, his his season or his career was going, he might not have made the jump because at that time, you know, he was fighting an injury that he didn’t know if it was going to be able to return. Yeah. Yeah. they almost forced to go to secure the money, you know, set up the family, whatever you got to do, right? So, but he’s been also the one who said there are at least certain PGA Tour events that he really misses like the waste management and stuff like that. So, again, this is why I think that the best thing for all of us, including the fans, would be some sort of deal where players could maybe do some crossover events. Who knows? But there regardless, it just shows that we are in a flux of constant change on both leagues and we’re going to keep watching this one closely. But I would say I if I gave a fairly high or a certain degree of percentage of confidence from what everything I’ve been seeing, I’ve been watching this closely on social media. I give a fairly high degree of confidence that this rumor at least of Seaw Woo Cam is going to be true and you’re going to possibly see him make the move. Whether Na will be out or not remains to be seen. So you guys let us know your own thoughts. What if this do you think is true? What do you think is just rumor mill in the comments below.