LIV Golf Singapore: Dustin Johnson returns to form to lead in Singapore

4Aces GC lead after day one at Sentosa

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’s 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 Sebastián Muñoz, who continues to push for his first LIV Golf title. Muñoz shot a 5-under 66 to take solo second. Muñoz 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,” Muñoz 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.”

4Aces GC were the dominant team in 2022, winning four consecutive regular-season titles and then the eventual Team Championship. They won two more regular-season tournaments in 2023. But nothing in their last 22 starts.

Torque GC won four times in 2023, more than any other team. But they also went winless in 2024.

Both those teams find themselves 1-2 on the leaderboard after Friday’s first round and would like nothing more than to end their respective droughts and celebrate a team victory this week in Singapore.

“We're all playing well enough where we can get it done,” said 4Aces Captain Dustin Johnson, whose team entered this week ninth in the standings. “Obviously we've still got two more days, and we need to all four play really solid the next couple days.

“Coming out of a year we didn't win, we didn't have the results, it's normally where you come back stronger and you go out and work harder to kind of accomplish your goals,” said Torque Captain Joaquin Niemann, whose team is tied for fifth in points.

Torque’s Sebastián Muñoz has been inside the top 10 after seven of the first 10 rounds this season, including five rounds in which he’s held or shared second. Asked if it was frustrating or encouraging to come so close, Muñoz definitely is looking at the positive aspects.

“I feel like I'm doing a good job mentally of not getting frustrated even though I've had a couple good chances,” he said. “I’m in a good place.”

He said watching his captain Joaquin Niemann’s recent success is a huge motivation factor. Niemann won twice last year while finishing second to Jon Rahm in the season-long Individual Championship, and he’s already won again this season in Adelaide.

“He's inspiring, and I feel like that really motivated me and my team to come this year and really perform,” Muñoz said. “We're working on it, and it's still not easy, but we're a lot closer.”

Said Niemann: “Sebastian, sooner than later, he's going to show what he can really do.”

Round 2 of LIV Golf Singapore is LIVE on ITV X, DAZN and LIVGolf.com from 1am GMT