{"id":405445,"date":"2026-01-13T23:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/405445\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T23:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:06:07","slug":"liv-golf-captain-dumped-for-pga-tour-star-in-transfer-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/405445\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf captain dumped for PGA Tour star in transfer twist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tAnother LIV Golf captain is set to leave after a surprise twist ahead of the 2026 season \u2013 and one departing player is clearly unimpressed\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>The drama at LIV Golf rumbles on.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.todays-golfer.com\/news-and-events\/tour-news\/brooks-koepka-pga-tour-return-decision\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fallout around Brooks Koepka<\/a> has been the talk on the range at LIV\u2019s media week here in South Florida, another of the league\u2019s captains has been conspicuous by his absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Na, who has led the Iron Heads side since LIV launched four years ago, was noticeably missing from a team lunch before a rebrand to the \u2018Korean Golf Club\u2019 was officially confirmed on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And it appears Na\u2019s time on LIV is now over after a dramatic late shake up to the team\u2019s roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Na\u2019s former teammate Jinichiro Kozuma, the best performing Iron Heads player in 2025, has also been dumped from the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kozuma impressed last season, finishing T2 in LIV\u2019s Dallas event and 32nd in the overall standings despite missing five regular season events with a debilitating back injury. But it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing if they\u2019re a better player than I am,\u201d he pointedly wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jinkozuma\/status\/2010898575753167022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The circumstances around Kizouma are unclear, but his exit has come after the conclusion of LIV\u2019s Promotions event, where three spots were available into the league.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s understood that PGA Tour player Ben An, who has been spotted during the media week, is now expected to sign for the team and could even replace Na as captain.<\/p>\n<p>And according to Korean title\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mk.co.kr\/en\/sports\/11931225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Maeil Business Newspaper<\/a>, An will be joined by fellow Korean Minkyu Kim, who was a short-term injury replacement for Kozuma last season. <\/p>\n<p>After Yubin Jang\u2019s relegation from the league, the third rumoured signing is 34-year-old Korean Younghan Song, a two-time Japan Tour winner who was a reserve on LIV in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Danny Lee, the Korean-born New Zealander, is the only player set to remain with the team.<\/p>\n<p>The Korean Golf Club rebrand comes as LIV continues\u00a0to target the country\u2019s golf market. After its inaugural visit last year, the league is expected to return in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were inspired after LIV Korea 2025,\u201d Korean Golf Club General Manager Martin Kim said of the rebrand. \u201cSeeing the energy of the thousands of young fans who showed up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur tagline \u2018Welcome to the club\u2019 is reflective of the opportunity we saw to create a new space for young fans showing up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKGC is a brand that stands for the golf movement in Korea and Koreans around the world. We\u2019re all beyond excited.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another LIV Golf captain is set to leave after a surprise twist ahead of the 2026 season \u2013&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-405445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}