Korean tour No. 1 withdraws from final stage of PGA Tour Q-School, reportedly to join LIV Golf

PGA Tour Q-School’s final stage is already down a player.

Yubin Jang, the second highest-ranked player in the field at No. 135 in the Official World Golf Ranking, withdrew on Tuesday morning, the PGA Tour confirmed, though a reason was not provided.

However, the Korea Times reported Tuesday that Jang was set to sign with LIV Golf, joining Iron Heads GC, the team captained by Kevin Na.

There is no alternate list for final stage, so Jang’s vacated spot will not be filled. That means the field is now at 170 players, who will be competing for at least five PGA Tour cards and other statuses under the PGA Tour umbrella.

Jang, a 22-year-old out of South Korea, was slated to tee off at 10 a.m. ET Thursday at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course alongside Johnny Keefer and Japan’s Kensei Hirata, who is the field’s highest-ranked player at No. 114 in the world. Jang, Keefer and Hirata were Nos. 1 on the order of merits for the Korean tour, PGA Tour Americas and Japan Tour, respectively, and now Keefer and Hirata will play the first 36 holes as a twosome.

In addition to claiming the KPGA’s money list, Jang won twice and posted five runners-up while leading the tour in scoring and driving distance.

LIV is also conducting its qualifying tournament, called LIV Promotions, this week in Saudi Arabia, where one spot on the Saudi-backed league will be up for grabs.