LIV Golf will officially return to South Korea for the first time since 2024 next Thursday, with the relaunched LIV Golf Korea event teeing off at Asiad Country Club in Busan on a four-round, no-cut format that organisers say will be the most aggressive Asian setup the league has produced.
The field of 57 players, divided into 13 teams of four with five wild cards, will play 72 holes of stroke play from May 28-31. The tournament has been built around the multi-year deal LIV signed with Busan earlier this year and is being supported on the ground by a host of local Korean talent, including DP World Tour winner Byeong Hun An, who has been involved in the course-design conversations and helped shape the routing for tournament play.
"Obviously, our priorities are great golf," An said of the setup. "We'd like to show what we're capable of — exciting and interesting golf."
The PGA Tour-experienced Korean is one of two host pros driving local interest in the event. Minkyu Kim, who has split his early career between the KPGA and the Asian Tour, has been working with LIV's hospitality team for the past three weeks and said the Busan reception has surprised even him.
"I think people are going to love it," Kim said. "A lot of good players are coming to Korea. Everybody is really excited."
The wider field is expected to include LIV's marquee names — Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann and 2024 LIV Golf Korea champion DeChambeau himself will be in attendance — although the league has yet to publish a confirmed pairings sheet. Cameron Smith's Ripper GC, fresh off the Australian's first major championship made cut in nearly two years at Aronimink, is expected to make the trip in full.
LIV has also leaned into the Korea event as one of its hospitality-and-entertainment flagships for the 2026 season. International DJ Peggy Gou, who was born in Incheon and has become one of the most globally bookable Korean artists in dance music, will headline the Saturday-night on-course concert at Asiad Country Club, with the show running directly after Round 3 finishes.
The commercial side of the event has come together quickly. Daesun Distilling, the largest soju producer in southeast Korea, was confirmed earlier this week as an official sponsor of LIV Golf Korea 2026, with the company using the tournament to push its "Busan is Daesun" campaign on a global audience for the first time. LIV has also added Korean television and streaming partnerships that organisers say will push the event into mainstream Saturday-night prime time in the host country.
Travel and ticketing demand has been brisk. Stripes Korea reported that all weekend pavilion packages had sold through within 36 hours of going on sale, and the regional Busan tourism office is forecasting a four-day hospitality bump in the city for the event period.
For LIV itself, the Korean stop arrives at a moment when the league's longer-term future has been the dominant storyline of the season. Reports in April flagged that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would no longer underwrite LIV beyond the 2026 season, and the cost-cutting has already shown up at the Asian Tour level, where LIV last week pulled back its purse top-up at the Korea Open.
The Busan event, by contrast, is being framed by the league as a model of what a regionally rooted LIV stop can look like when host pros, local sponsors and a major cultural booking line up behind a single weekend. An summed up the local pitch in a single line.
"Everybody is really excited."
The tournament starts Thursday.
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*Originally published on [Golf News](https://golfnews.global/article/liv-golf-korea-2026-busan-asiad-country-club-13-teams-peggy-gou-byeong-hun-an-preview). Visit for full coverage.*
