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SINGAPORE: 4Aces GC Captain Dustin Johnson is back to full strength — and back at the top of the leaderboard.
Johnson leads LIV Golf Singapore presented by Aramco by three shots after a bogey-free 63 in Friday’s opening round at Sentosa Golf Club. His 8-under round matches his best single-round LIV Golf performance, relative to par, in 109 career regular-season rounds.
His 4Aces, seeking their first win since 2023, lead the team competition by two strokes over Torque GC.
A week ago in Hong Kong, the 40-year-old Johnson woke up prior to the first round with a sore right shoulder that limited his range of motion. He shot rounds of 75 and 72 to drop to last place after the first two days.
“I couldn’t turn my head to the right,” Johnson explained. “I kind of just pulled when I was on the through swing, so I was hitting everything left. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
He received treatment between rounds and his body finally responded prior to Sunday’s final round. He shot a 6-under 64, tying for the third-best score of the day, but the leaderboard damage had been done, as he finished last for the first time at a LIV Golf tournament.
Feeling good about his game entering last week, Johnson said it was easy to dismiss the first two rounds and the final result because of the injury.
“Swung it really nicely on Sunday,” he said. “Obviously, the body loosened back up and I could hit the shots that I wanted.”
In shooting 63 at Sentosa’s Serapong course on Friday, Johnson hit 16 greens, tying for best in the field, and missed just three fairways. Meanwhile, his putter heated up, especially at the par-3 14th when he rolled in a birdie putt from 58 feet.
“I put a lot of work in the last couple of days on the putter,” Johnson said, “and it paid off.”
Johnson will enter the weekend seeking his fourth league individual title. He has won once in each of LIV Golf’s first three seasons and can become the first player to win in all four seasons.
His closest pursuer is Torque’s Sebastian Munoz, who continues to push for his first LIV Golf title. Munoz shot a 5-under 66 to take solo second. He has held or shared second after five of the first 10 rounds of the 2025 LIV Golf season.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get it done this week, but I’m working hard at it,” Munoz said. “I want that opportunity again.”
Eight players are tied for third after shooting 4-under 67, including five team captains: Jon Rahm (Legion XIII), Brooks Koepka (Smash GC), Joaquin Niemann (Torque GC), Louis Oosthuizen (Stinger GC) and Cameron Smith (Ripper GC).
Rahm is the reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion and Niemann already has a win this season. Koepka is the defending Singapore champion while Smith tied for second with teammate Marc Leishman as the Rippers won the team title in 2024.
The 4Aces shot a collective 14 under, while Torque is at 12 under. Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC are another two strokes back, with all four of their players shooting in the 60s. Not only do the Aces have a lengthy winning drought, Torque also hasn’t won since 2023, while the HyFlyers have yet to win a team trophy.
“We’ve got a lot of golf to play in the next two days,” Niemann said. “We’re excited to see what’s coming.”
Team scores
LIV Golf’s new scoring format this season now involves all four scores now counting in every round in the team competition. (Click here for more on the new format). Here are the results and scores for each team after Friday’s Rd. 1 of LIV Golf Singapore.
1. 4ACES GC -14 (Johnson 63, Reed 68, Varner III 69, Pieters 70)
2. TORQUE GC -12 (Munoz 66, Niemann 67, Ortiz 68, Pereira 71)
3. HYFLYERS GC -10 (Tringale 67, Mickelson 69, Ogletree 69, Steele 69)
4. FIREBALLS GC -7 (Ancer 67, Puig 68, Masaveu 70, Garcia 72)
T5. STINGER GC -5 (Oosthuizen 67, Schwartzel 68, Burmester 70, Grace 74)
T5. LEGION XIII -5 (Rahm 67, Surratt 68, Hatton 70, McKibbin 74)
7. RIPPER GC -3 (Smith 67, Herbert 68, Jones 72, Leishman 74)
T8. RANGEGOATS GC -2 (Uihlein 68, Campbell 68, Watson 70, Wolff 76)
T8. IRON HEADS GC -2 (Lee 68, Catlin 70, Jang 72, Na 72)
10. SMASH GC -1 (Koepka 67, Kokrak 68, Gooch 70, McDowell 78)
11. CRUSHERS GC +1 (Casey 67, Lahiri 70, DeChambeau 74, Howell III 74)
12. MAJESTICKS GC +8 (Stenson 71, Westwood 72, Horsfield 73, Poulter 76)
13. CLEEKS GC +10 (Meronk 70, Bland 71, Kaymer 73, Kjettrup 80)
Wild Cards: Lee 70, Kim 73