One of LIV Golf’s rumored targets has committed to the PGA Tour — at least for now.
On Friday afternoon, Si Woo Kim announced that he would be competing in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in January, ending a week of rumors that placed the 47th-ranked player in the world in LIV’s crosshairs.
“Okay guys see you in @sonyopenhawaii,” Kim posted to Instagram on Friday afternoon, ostensibly committing to the event he won in 2023 and affirming his desire to remain on the PGA Tour at least through the beginning of 2026. Kim’s agent did not respond to GOLF.com’s request for clarification or comment about his PGA Tour status beyond the January Hawaii event.
According to reports from the Flushing It fan account and Alex Perry of Today’s Golfer, LIV had been targeting Kim as a key piece of its offseason acquisition efforts. Kim’s reported pursuit overlapped with the growth strategy outlined by LIV CEO Scott O’Neil in a recent interview with GOLF.com. In the interview, O’Neil pointed to LIV’s international growth as its primary target for the future, and mentioned Korea as one of the league’s important markets.
Earlier this week, unsubstantiated reports placed Kim in “late-stage negotiations” to join LIV alongside fellow Korean pro Sungjae Im. Im quickly rejected the reports as false, while “an official” close to Kim was quoted in a Korean paper reaffirming his commitment to the PGA Tour.
“It is true that Kim Si-woo, like many Korean players, has been offered a recruitment,” the official told Maeil Business Newspaper on Thursday. “However, Kim Si-woo finally expressed his intention to refuse and decided to remain on the PGA Tour.”
While Kim’s Instagram post appears to tie him to the PGA Tour into the future, his commitment to the Sony Open doesn’t completely remove the possibility of a late-stage move to LIV. The Sony Open will be played two weeks before the first LIV event of the 2026 season in Riyadh, theoretically leaving time for a change of heart.
Earlier this year, LIV Golf filed for the trademark on a series of new team names, including “Becko East GC.” Becko, or the more formal spelling Baekho, is the Korean word for “white tiger,” a popular symbol in Korean mythology.
Kim, a 30-year-old professional from South Korea, would have represented a coup for LIV in the international growth department, gifting the league arguably the most commercially successful Korean golfer of the last decade. With the PGA Tour, Kim has blossomed into a key component of the international contingent, winning four times and competing in three Presidents Cups for the International Team.
So far, LIV has added two players with pending PGA Tour status for the 2026 season: Victor Perez and Laurie Canter — though the league’s efforts at attracting PGA Tour talent might not yet be complete. LIV has until February 4th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to complete its rosters for 2026.
