Kim Taehoon Lee, the 'first Canadian national' to qualify for LIV Golf, "I'm happy to achieve my long-term goal."

*This content was translated by AI.

Korean-Canadian Taehoon Lee (34) has qualified for the 2026 season of LIV Golf.

Taehoon Lee tied six birdies and one bogey for a 5-under 65 in the final round of the LIV Golf Promotion held at Black Diamond Ranch (par 70) in Recanto, Florida on the 12th (Korea time).

Taehoon Lee, who recorded the final 11-under 129 total, beat second-place Bjorn Helgrain (Sweden, 6-under 134) by five strokes to win the championship.

With this victory, Taehoon Lee, who has the right to play LIV Golf in the 2026 season, which is only given to the top three players, will be the first Canadian national to play LIV Golf. In addition, he won 200,000 U.S. dollars (about 293 million won) in prize money.

Taehoon Lee, which has four wins on the Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Tour, has been active, ranking second in the prize money rankings and third in the average number of hits, with four runner-up wins, including the KPGA Tour Woori Finance Championship last year.

Taehoon Lee, who won the LIV Golf qualification, said through management company All That Sports, "I'm happy to win the LIV Golf seed that I've been aiming for a long time," adding, "I thought the opportunity would come if I finished well until the second round because I had a good shot and putting feeling from the first round."

"As the season begins soon, we will do our best to show a good performance by intensively supplementing short games and putting," he said.

Korean-American Anthony Kim ranked third with a 5-under 135 overall, taking the last train to LIV Golf with Taehoon Lee. Anthony Kim, who joined LIV Golf in 2024 and was demoted due to poor performance, has another opportunity through this tournament.

Wang Jung-hoon was tied for fourth place with a final total of 3-under 137, missing the ticket to go straight to LIV Golf, but secured the seed for the Asian Tour International Series next season.

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*This content was translated by AI.