2025 LIV Golf Season Preview: 4Aces GC

The 2025 LIV Golf League season starts Feb. 6 in Riyadh. Here’s a quick look at Dustin Johnson’s 4Aces GC.

OVERVIEW

Lineup

• Dustin Johnson (Captain), USA
• Thomas Pieters, Belgium
• Patrick Reed, USA
• Harold Varner III, USA

Who’s New? Thomas Pieters joins the team in a trade with the RangeGoats. It’s the second consecutive year the Aces have acquired a former RangeGoat, having obtained Harold Varner III the previous offseason. Pieters takes the place of Pat Perez, who will work as a full-time LIV Golf broadcaster in 2025.

The Offseason: It was a successful offseason for Patrick Reed, who won his first tournament in nearly four years in capturing the Link Hong Kong Open in November. Reed was 22 under for the four-round tournament, shooting 59 in the third round. Look out for Reed’s return to Hong Kong Golf Club for the third event of the 2025 LIV Golf season … Johnson, a two-time winner of the PIF Saudi International, became a Golf Saudi ambassador in December … Pieters had back-to-back top-15 finishes on the International Series to end the 2024 season.

Going to be a good year if … long-time friends Varner and Pieters push each other to new LIV Golf heights.

ALL-TIME RESULTS

Trophies Won

TEAM (7)
2022 Portland
2022 Bedminster
2022 Boston
2022 Chicago
2022 Miami Team Championship
2023 Adelaide
2023 London

INDIVIDUAL (3)
2022 Boston – Johnson
*2022 Individual Championship – Johnson
2023 Tulsa – Johnson

2024 Las Vegas – Johnson
*Season-long title

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

DJ-Reed combo – No tandem was more lethal during the first two LIV Golf seasons … and now they’ve got bounce-back motivation.

Win at all costs – No team likes losing, but the Aces seem to take it harder than anybody else.

Versatility and balance – With the addition of Pieters, the Aces have two big hitters and two ball-strikers, which should give them a chance on any layout.

OPPORTUNITIES

Round 3 – Usually one of the best teams in the final round, the Aces were a surprisingly ninth in team score for the all-scores count Rd. 3 last year.

Improved Varner – It was a down year in his first full season with the Aces, but Varner expects to post improved results in 2025.

New glue guy? – The loss of Perez might be felt most in the team room.

WORTH NOTING

BUSTED DRIVER. After posting an early win last year, Dustin Johnson looked to be on track for another terrific season. But during LIV Golf Miami, he broke his driver, and his season sort of unraveled, especially at the Masters where he shot 78-79. “Looking back on the year, I’m searching to find a driver instead of just working on my game and preparing,” DJ said. “I know it sounds funny … but I just couldn’t find anything that matched until the end of the year.” In case you’re wondering – he feels good about his driver and the rest of the bag going into 2025.

GYM-RAT REED. Patrick Reed wasn’t happy with the consistency of his game in 2024, and so he made a few off-season tweaks. One of them included more time in the gym, hoping to improve his strength and stamina. After more than a month of increased gym time, his first start as at the Link Hong Kong Open – which he won, shooting a third-round 59 in the process.

“To go out there, shoot 59 and get a win, I was like, ‘All right, maybe there’s something to it,’” Reed said. “Finally getting that win, hopefully now we can go out here on LIV and get over that hump.”

Eight of the 14 LIV Golf major winners have already won an individual LIV Golf title. Of the remaining six, Reed is the youngest at age 34.

NON-AMERICAN ACE. Belgium-born Thomas Pieters is the first non-American on the 4Aces lineup since the inaugural 2022 LIV Golf event in London. Although the team-room dynamic will be a bit different without veteran Pat Perez, the team doesn’t expect it will be much of an issue.

“Both of them are completely different personalities,” said Reed. “Both are really good people, fun to be around. I think it’s going to be great. I don’t think really anything’s going to have to change. Just go out and play golf. The only difference is I have a guy that’s going to it 30 yards past me now.”

The decade-long friendship between Pieters and Varner should help make the transition smoother as they both seek to play better in 2025. “Insanely excited about it,” Varner said. “And I think it’s a fresh start for all of us.”

CAPTAIN'S LAST WORD