2025 LIV Golf Season Preview: Stinger GC

The 2025 LIV Golf League season starts Feb. 6 in Riyadh. Here’s a quick look at Louis Oosthuizen’s all-South African Stinger GC.

OVERVIEW

Lineup

• Louis Oosthuizen (Captain), South Africa
• Dean Burmester, South Africa
• Branden Grace, South Africa
• Charl Schwartzel, South Africa

Who’s New? No one. The lineup is set for a third full year together after Grace was re-signed to a two-year deal after the Stingers made a successful business-case argument to keep him post-relegation. Oosthuizen, Grace and Schwartzel are Day 1 LIV Golf players and have been together longer than any other threesome in the league.

The Offseason: Burmester won a tournament in South Africa for the second consecutive offseason, claiming the Vodacom Origins of Golf final on the Sunshine Tour … The Asian Tour’s International Series Qatar was a showcase for the Stingers’ depth, as Schwartzel finished solo second, Oosthuizen tied for third and Burmester tied for fifth … Grace produced a runner-up finish at LIV Golf Promotions in hopes of re-earning his spot with automatic qualification.

Going to be a good year if … Grace continues his upward trend after battling injuries during the 2024 season.

ALL-TIME RESULTS

Trophies Won

TEAM (2)
2022 London
2023 Tulsa

INDIVIDUAL (3)
2022 London – Schwartzel
2022 Portland – Grace
2024 Miami – Burmester

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Lekker depth – “Lekker” is another word for good in Afrikaans, and the Stingers are the only team with three different individual LIV Golf winners on the roster.

Mid-range kings – Check out their seeds and results in the Team Championship. They’ve won the Tier 2 level in each of the last two years.

Braai buddies – The foursome is as close-knit as any LIV Golf team, and their age ranges are all within a tight 7 years. They even survived Schwartzel’s exploding braai during a team gathering last year.

Scrambling – The Stingers ranked as the top team in that category last season, with Oosthuizen and Burmester ranking inside the top 10 individually.

OPPORTUNITIES

Grace must be Grace – One of LIV Golf’s steadiest players the first two years suffered an unexpected blip in 2024.

0 for Louis – The captain was the Stingers’ top-ranked player in 2024 but is the only team member who’s yet to record an individual victory in LIV Golf.

Playoff hangover? – The team lost to the home favorite Rippers in Adelaide in LIV Golf’s first-ever team playoff last year. The memories are still painful.

WORTH NOTING

ALMOST CHAMPS. After winning the inaugural LIV Golf London in 2022, and then in Tulsa during the 2023 season, the Stingers have gone 24 tournaments without a team win. During that span, they’ve reached the podium eight times (three 2nds, five 3rds), lost the playoff in Adelaide to the Rippers after shooting 53 under in regulation, and were the best Tier 2 team in each of the last two Team Championship Sundays. In Dallas last year, they shot the lowest cumulative score of any team (15 under) and would’ve won the title had they not lost to the 4Aces in the match-play semifinals the day before. “We know we are good enough,” said captain Louis Oosthuizen. “We just need to get there. The biggest goal this year is to get to that Sunday and give ourselves a chance.”

Speaking of chances, Oosthuizen had two runner-up finishes among his six top-10 results in 2024. He was the highest-performing non-winner in LIV Golf last year. “Louis has always been knocking on the door,” said his longtime friend Charl Schwartzel. “It’s only a matter of time before he wins.”

DEFENDING IN MIAMI. Dean Burmester won on the Blue Monster at Miami last year, beating Sergio Garcia on the second playoff hole. He was glad to see Doral back on the schedule for the 2025 season. “I’ve actually been thinking about it – I don’t know how nervous I’m going to be on that first tee,” he said. “It’s the Blue Monster. It was freaking stressful enough last year – and now I’m going to defend around there? But yeah, I’m excited.”

PUTTING BLIP. Branden Grace’s unexpected struggles in 2024 can be pinpointed on the greens, as he ranked 53rd in the league in putting. But he switched to a long putter late in the season and that made a huge improvement in his results during the offseason. He finished 2024 with five consecutive top-20 finishes, including three top 10s, the last one as runner-up at LIV Golf Promotions. “He switched to that long putter and all of the sudden, he’s played better,” said Schwartzel. “You can see he’s much more confident and probably more optimistic about this year.”

Grace was appreciative that his teammates didn’t give up on him after a disappointing season. He wants to make amends in 2025. Besides the new putter, he also changed caddies last year and looks forward to a fresh beginning. “I want to win. I need to get back on the winning streak,” Grace said. “I believe I can. I believe I’m working on the right things. I believe I have the right people on my team, and I know they back me.”

The remaining Stingers couldn’t imagine the team without Grace. “We all sort of took this plunge together and we’ve grown together,” Burmester said. “It’s a close bond that we’ve got. We really fought hard for him to be back. It wouldn’t be the same without him.”

CAPTAIN'S LAST WORD