Junghwan Lee defeated Nacho Elvira and Laurie Canter by three shots to win the 2025 Genesis Championship. That means that in just his sixth career start on the DP World Tour, Lee took home his first victory in his home country of South Korea.
Mikael Lindberg and Elvira were tied atop the leaderboard after three rounds at 8-under. Lindberg tied the lowest round of the day by shooting a 4-under-67, while Elvira shot a 2-under-69 during the third round.
Lee started the fourth round four shots back of the leaders, but he quickly made that up after five birdies in a row starting on the third hole and shooting a 4-under-32 on the front nine. A couple groups behind him, Elvira shot 2-under on the front nine to get to 10-under and stay atop the leaderboard.
The back nine started well for Lee with a birdie on the 10th hole. He went on to birdie the 14th and 18th holes, setting the clubhouse lead at 11-under. His round of 64 (-7) was the lowest round of the day.
Elvira ended up bogeying the 11th hole to drop to 9-under. He then birdied the 15th hole to get one back of Lee. But bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes dropped him all the way back to 8-under as Lee clinched the victory.
With this win, Lee becomes a member of the DP World Tour and will be in the first playoff event in two weeks. For the second year in a row, a South Korean has won the Genesis Championship.
“I really feel like I’m dreaming,” Lee said after his win. “I really, really wanted to go to DP World Tour and I was actually working really hard towards that goal, but somehow I was coming up short a little bit — I was really making the effort – and now I have this really great opportunity. I’m just really grateful.”
The next event on the DP World Tour is the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. This is the first event off the DP World Tour playoffs. Paul Waring is the defending champion but is not playing this year. Nine players from the 2025 European Ryder Cup Team will be in the field.
