High Hopes: Mito Pereira
_{After the worst season of his career, Mito Pereira will be looking to bounce back in 2025.}

I’m not sure there was any golfer in the world who’s performance in 2024 was so far below expectations. Looking back two years, Mito had firmly established himself as a top 50 player in the world. Data based rankings currently have him outside of the top 250.

This graph shows it all. In 2024 he’s fallen off a cliff, and I know for a fact that he’s not taking that lightly. He’s motivated and he’s been spending a lot of time this offseason working with his coach to get things back on track, and remind everybody what Mito Pereira is capable of. So many times this past season he’d be playing decent golf, somewhere near the middle of the pack, and then have a round where just nothing was working.

2024 Greenbrier is the perfect example, 12th place after two rounds after shooting 66-65, then finishes with a 71 to drop to T28.

He’s the player I think will take the biggest step up this season, but it’s more of a step back to where he was, where he’s capable of being, where we all know he can be. His work this offseason should help get rid of those uncharacteristically bad rounds and see Mito return to form.

Harsh Realities: Dustin Johnson

_{Has DJ put in the time this offseason? Can his pure athleticism get him back to where he once was?}

DJ started off last year with a T5 in Mayakoba, a win in Las Vegas, and then it was pretty ordinary at best from there on out. Towards the end of the 2024 season he finished T20, T33, and T34, then in the offseason missed the cut at the PIF Saudi International. Not the DJ we’ve known for years.

Tough for me to see a finish like that last season and have a ton of hope for the 2025 season. It wasn’t good. He’s obviously happy, he’s enjoying life, and that’s exactly what he was looking for, it just didn’t look like he was putting the time in to compete against Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and more.

Now, there’s another side to this. He’s a freak athlete. There aren’t many (if any?) professional golfers that are more naturally athletic than Dustin Johnson. I can’t seem to find the interview, but a while back DJ was asked how long it would take him to get back into tour-level form after a long break from the game. He said it’d only take a few days. So if DJ is looking to compete, and really wants to go beat everybody this year, he’s more than capable of doing so. If not, he’ll captain his team to a win or two this season and be near the top of the leaderboard a couple of times. Good, but not DJ great.

High Hopes: Adrian Meronk

_{Adrian Meronk hasn’t quite shown what he’s capable on LIV Golf yet, but 2025 will be the year.}

Outside of Houston last year, Adrian Meronk didn’t really show us what he’s capable of. He was comfortably a top 50 player in the world when he joined LIV Golf, and hasn’t really played to the level that he’s able to thus far. His offseason wasn’t great, with a couple of finishes in the middle of pack and a couple of missed cuts on the DP World Tour, but he’s been putting the time in this offseason.

This is the year that he finds the form of 2022-2023 Adrian Meronk, the form of the 2023 DP World Tour player of the year, the Andalucía Masters winner, the Italian Open winner, the Australian Open winner. I’m confident that this offseason was what he needed, and he spent his time well, doing the right things, and that’s all going to pay off in 2025.

Plus, with that new Cleeks GC logo, anything is possible.

Harsh Realities: Talor Gooch

_{Talor showed us all in 2023 that he was one of the best in the world, but as are many things, professional sports are a “what have you done lately?” game.}

The harsh reality here is that after a spectacular 2023 season where he won in Adelaide, Singapore, Valderrama, and lost in a playoff to Brooks Koepka in Jeddah, everyone’s expectations were pretty high headed into 2024.

His performance in 2023 was so good that he was the focus of the conversation surrounding major exemptions, the conversation surrounding OWGR, and more. Not having Talor Gooch invited to the majors was the perfect illustration of just how broken the system was. He gave the proverbial middle finger to the establishment as well when he attempt to qualify for the US Open. Talor Gooch, 3 time winner in 2023, shouldn’t need to go play in open qualifying, he should be invited.

That was all fantastic, had my full support. Even in 2023 he started pretty well, T2 in Las Vegas, T6 in Jeddah, T9 Miami, 4th in Singapore. Looked like he was going to be hunting for the Individual Championship again. And it’s not like he had a terrible season, he finished 10th in the standings, and had a second child, so there’s a lot going on there. But for those who don’t know, Talor is the owner of a professional bull riding team, and the part that got to me, is that he brought the Smash GC team to an event after the first or second round of LIV Greenbrier last year. It’s not a huge thing, team bonding is important and all, and it’s not a lot of travel so I’m sure they weren’t out too late, but something just felt different about it. Bryson goes to the range after a round, Cam Smith goes to the range after a round, Rahm goes to the range after a round… if you’re going to be giving the proverbial middle finger to the establishment on the grounds that you’re one of the best in the world, I need you to keep being the best in the world.

Note: Smash GC won the team event in Greenbrier, and Brooks won the individual event, so maybe I’m reading too much into this, but given the context of everything it just felt… a little different. The “I’m one of the best I should be invited to the majors” mentality, which I agree with, just didn’t align with “I’m on a PJ going to a bull riding event mid tournament”.

Maybe I’m wrong on all of this and Talor will remind us all how good he is and make me look foolish very quickly. It’s certainly a possibility.

High Hopes: Tyrrell Hatton

_{Tyrrell’s offseason has been the strongest of the LIV players, 2025 will be huge for him if that form continues.} 

It’s hard to have high hopes for Tyrrell Hatton in relation to his performance last year. He finished inside the top 10 seven times last year on LIV, including his win in Nashville. In the offseason he added two DP World Tour victories, and they weren’t small ones. He took home the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Hero Desert Dubai Classic, two of the strongest fields of the DP World Tour season.

Tyrrell’s scoring average has consistently decreased over the past two years, and that’s why he’s firmly established himself as one of the best in the world. If this trend continues, he’ll be lapping everybody, but even if this stat stalls out here, he’ll be competing week in and week out.

Fully expecting that not a thing has changed with Tyrrell, outside of maybe some new clubs. He’ll have the same attitude, same fire, and continue reminding everyone he’s comfortably a top 10 player in the world. Could be a big year for Tyrrell.

Harsh Realities: Lee Westwood

_{Has Lee been working on his game behind the scenes?} 

Lee Westwood has been pretty unspectacular the last two years, and I really like watching Lee Westwood swing the club. He had a solid stretch of golf last year when he finished T3 in Nashville and then a few weeks later T12 in Andalucía which kept him out of the relegation zone. But outside of those two events there hasn’t been much to write home about the past couple of years. He’s pretty active on social media, but the overwhelming majority of that is focused around his horse racing.

Sure he can post anything he’d like, and share whatever he wants, and not share whatever he wants, but I think now’s the time to show everyone he can remain competitive. I could be reading too much into social media postings, but there’s been very little about the work he’s been putting in this offseason. I hope the works being done, and he comes out in good form and helps Majesticks find the podium early this year, but that’s just not something I’ve seen thus far.

Lee’s scoring average has been all over the place the last two years, as you can see in this chart. It shows pretty clearly that he can compete at this level, he’s just got to put the work in and regain that form.

Another year like the past two and I think Lee might be headed on the fast track to a non-playing captaincy role, as Majesticks need to be competitive this year, and not just rely on the stars aligning once or twice a season to end up on the podium. 14 events to prove me wrong, and I’d like him to do just that.

High Hopes: Yubin Jang

_{Iron Heads newest addition will need to step up to compete at this next level of competition - but he’s done that once already.}

The newest member of Iron Heads GC, Yubin Jang, is one of the best young talents in Korean golf. He’s just 22 years old and turned professional a little over a year ago. In the time since turning pro he’s recorded two wins and 7 more finishes inside the top 5. His first big test, competition wise, came at the PIF Saudi International where he finished T22 amongst a very strong field.

Currently when Yubin Jang is at his best, he would have been consistently making the cut on the PGA Tour, he’ll need to step that up, but at just 22 and less than two years into his professional career, he’s shown he has what it takes to do just that.

He’ll have to elevate his game to the next level if he wants to be competitive on LIV Golf this year, but every step of the way in his short professional career, he’s done just that. Looking, hoping, and expecting him to do the same again this year as he faces his toughest test yet.

Harsh Realities: Charles Howell III

_{Streaky form, an injury, and then a long hiatus. Charles Howell III has a tough road ahead to regain his form and find consistency.}

If you look at Charles Howell III’s last two seasons you see a pretty clear pattern. He’s very streaky. In 2023 he started with a win in Mayakoba, finished 5th in Tucson shortly after, and then a couple of events later was T8 in Singapore. A great start to the season, then towards the middle he had a T31, T45, T44 before getting hot again and posting a T9 and T6 towards the end of the season.

Again in 2024 he started off really strong, a T5, T6, and T8 in three of the first four events. Then his form fell off a little bit and he’d eventually take a 12 week break due to stress fractures in his leg. No one was expecting anything spectatular after that hiatus, given the rust that quickly develops in golf swings, and the competitive rust he’d also have accumulated, so the results towards the end of the year are a bit moot.

This is a pretty interesting chart from TUGR that measures a players volatility, and Charles Howelll III is pretty volatile:

And here’s Scottie Scheffler’s for comparison, one of the most consistent players in recent history:

But I would have loved to see him play a couple of events in the offseason. He’ll be coming into the 2025 season, the time of the year when he’s usually playing his best, having played 3 tournaments since May of 2024. That simply doesn’t bode well for him, but if he’s been grinding this offseason and worked to improve his level of play outside of his hot streaks, he’ll be one of the most consistent players on LIV.

Time will tell on this one.

High Hopes: Cam Smith

_{On his way to becoming a new father, Cam Smith has been motivated this offseason and will be eager to remind everyone what he’s capable of.}

There’s been a lot of signs this offseason that make me very optimistic about Cam Smith’s 2025 season. Last season he finished in 7th place in the standings, missing Miami due to illness. He accumulated the majority of his points last season in Hong Kong where he lost in a playoff to Abraham Ancer, Singapore where he finished two shots behind winner Brooks Koepka, and the UK event where he finished just one shot behind winner Jon Rahm.

This offseason he’s played 5 events and finished second or tied for second in 3 of them, T3 in one, and a below average finish in the other.

There’s no way around it, that’s a lot of second places. However in a podcast appearance earlier this offseason, he talked about how he hadn’t taken his prior offseason too seriously, relaxed a bit too much, had a bit too much fun, and said he wasn’t going to be making that mistake again.

You can see on this chart, Cam Smith’s relative strokes compared to the best in the world (Scheffler) slowly rose over the last year and a half:

I’m expecting Cam Smith to return to the form he’s capable of, the player who won the Open, rolling in putts from everywhere and doing it consistently. He’s always struggled off the tee and if he’s taken this offseason as seriously as he says he has, he’ll have made some progress on that front.

Most importantly, he’s becoming a father in just a couple of months, and historically that’s been the spark players need to get themselves back in the winners circle.

Harsh Realities: Pat Perez

_{Can he successfully pivot into a fan-favorite on course commentator?}

For those who may have missed the news, Pat Perez is shifting from on course to off course for the 2025 season. As a two+ year member of 4 Aces GC, Pat Perez had some fantastic events, played some great rounds when it mattered most, and contributed to some of the team’s best moments.

A tremendously rocky and unfortunate stretch in his personal life coincided with him playing some of the worst golf of his career, leaving him outside of LIV Golf’s “Lock Zone” that would have guaranteed him a spot for the 2025 season. As 4 Aces GC looked to recruit a younger player, something they’d succeed in as Thomas Pieters joined the team who is 15 years Perez’s junior, that left Pat without a roster spot.

He’s got aspirations of joining the Champions Tour in a couple of years, but for the time being has some Asian Tour eligibility and will be joining the LIV Golf broadcast as an on course commentator.

He’s got a big personality, loves self-deprecating humor, and obviously is a tremendous golf talent, and natural talker. He’s going to have to find the right balance of providing insight into what might be happening in the minds of the players on the course, injecting his personality and humor, and letting the golf speak for itself. No easy task.

Though there’s some precedent for this going really well. Kevin Kisner isn’t all that different from Perez, and he’s been fantastic on the course. Bubba Watson joined the broadcast in 2022 when he was recovering from an injury and did a great job. Smylie Kauffman does a good job on the PGA Tour broadcasts. So this could be a great addition, but Perez needs to work at it, take things slowly, and find where he fits in the broadcast naturally if he is to succeed at this new role.

I’m excited to see how this turns out, and think it could be really good for Pat and the broadcast alike, but it’s not going to be an easy transition.