Out of the Rough: Genesis Championship (2025)

Spanning nearly ten months, four continents and 25 countries, the 2025 DP World Tour regular season is coming to an end with this week's Genesis Championship.

This event was first staged in 2023 and was held in the spring. It was moved to its new end-of-the-regular-season time slot a season ago and will continue to occupy that slot this season.

The previous two installments of this event were staged at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon, South Korea. This year’s installment will see a change of scenery, moving to the Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, located in South Chungcheong.

With this week serving as the final stop of the regular-season, this is the final chance for golfers to crack the top-70 of the season-long Race to Dubai Rankings and qualify for the first of two DP World Tour Play-Off events, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

This week’s event is also co-sanctioned between the DP World Tour and the Korean Tour to continue the efforts in strengthening the relationship between the two tours. 

The Field

With much of the field locked into their placement for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in two weeks time and the regular PGA Tour talent making their rounds on the DP World Tour opting out this week in favor for India a week ago, the field this week leaves a bit to be desired for an end-of-the-season event.

South Korean PGA Tour stars Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim and Byeong Hun An will be teeing it up this week on home soil, looking to repeat what An did a season ago and claim victory.

They’ll be joined by PGA Tour regulars Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott and Thomas Detry among others in this week’s field.

Notable DP World Tour regulars playing this week include Haotong Li, Laurie Canter, Martin Couvra, Elvis Smylie, Joakim Lagergren, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Daniel Hillier.

With this week being the final week golfers can acquire points and ultimately qualify for the DP World Tour Play-offs, the current first five within the top-70 of the Race to Dubai standings are Joe Dean (66th,) Ivan Cantero (67th,) Ashun Wu (68th,) Rafa Cabrera Bello (69th) and Jason Scrivener (70th.) All of which will be playing this week.

The first five out currently are Richard Sterne (71st,) Ludvig Aberg (72nd,) Ben Schmidt (73rd,) Mikael Lindberg (74th) and Sam Bairstow (75th.) Sterne, Schmidt and Lindberg will be playing this week. 

An comes in as the defending champion, although at a different golf course, defeating Tom Kim in a play-off a season ago.

The Course

Woo Jeong Hills Country Club in South Chungcheong, which sits approximately 90 minutes from Seoul, will play host for the first time.

Although playing host to this event for the first time, this course is well known to South Koreans and the Korean Tour.

It has hosted the Korea Open on a number of occasions, seeing names such as John Daly claim victory here.

It was opened in 1993 and designed by Perry Dye, the son of legendary golf architect and mastermind behind TPC Sawgrass, Pete Dye.

This course is as close to a big-brash American championship course that South Korea has to offer as the municipal and corporate golf setting dominates the scene.

It plays as a par-71 at 7,225 yards.

Off-the-tee, golfers will be faced with a number of hazards, including steep undulating fairways and 12 water hazards, all framed by the nearby forested mountains.

From there, golfers will take approach shots into challenging green complexes.

The course plays much like that of a certain Pete Dye design in Ponte Verde Beach, Florida and many of the holes are reminiscent of that famed course.

The front nine is highlighted by the par-five fifth with a hazard, trees and flower beds flanking the right side of the fairway with views of the surrounding mountains framing the hole in the distance.

The back nine, of course, is featured by the signatured 221-yard par-three 13th that plays onto a tiny island green. No surprise there.

The daunting par-five 18th is also a fantastic finishing hole with a green surrounded by a grassed amphitheater.

In all, this is a course not often seen or featured when it comes to Asian golf. It should be a good one.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, Thursday is currently calling for a 20-percent chance of precipitation, Friday just a ten-percent chance, Saturday a ten-percent chance and Sunday a ten-percent chance. Temperatures will begin at 64-degrees on Thursday before pumping to 66-degrees on Friday and returning to 64-degrees on Saturday. Temperatures will finish the week at 63-degrees on Sunday. Winds will begin the week at just three miles-per-hour on Thursday, two miles-per-hour on Friday, three miles-per-hour on Saturday and peak at eight miles-per-hour on Sunday.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Driving Accuracy

• Bogey Avoidance

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green

• Scrambling

• Par Five Scoring Average

• Ball Striking

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

• Birdie or Better Percentage

Betting Card

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (+1400)

No surprise here. If you’ve checked out any of my DP World Tour articles this season, you know how much I love the young Dane. A win is coming. He’s currently third on Tour in ball striking, sixth in SG: OTT, 13th in bogey avoidance, 15th in SG: APP, 22nd in scrambling, 29th in birdie-or-better percentage, 56th in SG: PUTT, 62nd in driving accuracy and 74th in SG: ATG. We last saw him at the Open de Espana where he finished fifth. Prior to that he placed 50th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 20th at the FedEx Open de France, missed the cut at the Amgen Irish Open, eighth at the Omega European Masters, 13th at the Betfred British Masters and 16th at the Danish Golf Championship. That’s a lot of quality outings in some of the best fields the DP World Tour had to offer this season. In this depleted field, Neergaard-Peterson is one of the cream-of-the-crop and if this bold and brash golf course plays how we expect, he has the game to outlast it. 

Keita Nakajima (+2500)

Nakajima held the 54-hole lead at last week’s DP World India Championship but was ultimately outdueled by Tommy Fleetwood who bested him by two strokes. Nakajima finished the week solo second. Prior to that he placed 49th at the FedEx Open de France. He missed back-to-back cuts at both the BMW PGA Championship and Amgen Irish Open but placed 17th at the Omega European Masters and fourth at the Betfred British Masters prior. He is currently 11th on Tour in driving accuracy, 17th in bogey avoidance, 21st in SG: OTT, 27th in ball striking, 34th in scrambling, 41st in SG: APP, 43rd in SG: PUTT, 64th in birdie-or-better percentage and 142nd in SG: ATG. 

Francesco Laporta (+6600)

Laporta is a guy I’m super high on this week. I think his game is suited for grind-it-out golf courses, just as we are expecting this week. He is currently 13th on Tour in scrambling, 16th in bogey avoidance, 19th in driving accuracy, 23rd in SG: OTT, 24th in SG: APP, 44th in ball striking, 51st in SG: ATG, 103rd in SG: PUTT and 106th in birdie-or-better percentage. He last played at the Open de Espana where he finished 47th. Prior to that he was 71st at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, 17th at the FedEx Open de France and 24th at the BMW PGA Championship. He’s caught some form as-of-late and I believe this is an event he can strive at. 

Ewen Ferguson (+6600)

This is another guy who strives at tough golf courses. I really wanted to bet him last week but a visa issue kept him sidelined. Either way, we probably get a better number on him this week due to his absence a week ago. He is currently eighth on Tour in driving accuracy, 18th in SG: OTT, 43rd in ball striking, 54th in SG: PUTT, 55th in bogey avoidance, 62nd in SG: APP, 78th in birdie-or-better percentage, 114th in scrambling and 133rd in SG: ATG. He last played at the Open de Espana where he placed 35th and 61st at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He missed the cut at the FedEx Open de France but also placed fifth at the BMW PGA Championship prior. 

Kazuma Kobori (+12500)

A big number for a guy who can pop on any given week. The recent form isn’t great. He missed the cut in his last outing at the Open de Espana. He placed 40th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and missed the cut at the FedEx Open de France. He placed 46th at the BMW PGA Championship, 62nd at the Amgen Irish Open and second at the Betfred British Masters. He also placed third earlier this season at the BMW International Open. Kobori is currently second on Tour in driving accuracy, 18th in scrambling, 26th in bogey avoidance, 30th in SG: ATG, 34th in SG: PUTT, 71st in ball striking, 78th in SG: APP, 86th in birdie-or-better percentage and 105th in SG: OTT.