Joaquin

Niemann

The young Chilean currently ranks 19th in the OWGR, slightly down from his best of 15th following the Masters this spring. He’s played four full seasons on the PGA TOUR and made it to East Lake in each of the last three. He’s piled up 10 starts in major championships but never finished better than T23 in any of those starts. His commitment to LIV will knock him out of the Presidents Cup with Cameron Smith also making the jump today, removing two of the International team qualifiers. Playing in this week’s Boston event will result in a PGA TOUR suspension for both and last week’s TOUR Championship was the last we’ll see of them on the PGA TOUR circuit, at least for the foreseeable future. Other players to make the jump to LIV Golf this week include Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, Harold Varner III, and Cameron Tringale.

Niemann opened at 2-under in the starting strokes format, eight shots off the lead. He made up a large chunk of that deficit rather quickly today, pelting 14 greens to rank 1st in strokes gained approach at the time he signed his card. What made it more surprising was his lack of success here in two previous visits, losing two-plus strokes to the field in six of those eight rounds. “After remembering the last two years, I’ve never seen a good round for myself, so it’s nice to see a good round finally and knowing that I’m able to give a score on this course, so yeah, hopefully see a few more of these rounds.” The young Chilean is now on page one of the TOUR Championship leaderboard with three rounds remaining.

The young Chilean ranked 5th in strokes gained tee-to-green this week but failed to find any momentum with the flat stick. He ended the week ranked 46th in strokes gained putting. His steady striking resulted in just six bogeys, tied for third best in the field, but his cold putter yielded just 15 birdies (T25 in the field). This is Niemann’s fourth season on the PGA TOUR and the third straight season where he’s played his way into the TOUR Championship (27th in 2020, 29th in 2021).

Niemann pelted 15 greens on day one but settled for 10 today while playing in tougher, afternoon conditions. Highlights of his round included a 32-footer to save par at the eighth and a 38'9" hole out for birdie at the 11th. Niemann missed the cut two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship but he’s right back in the hunt, just five shots off the torrid pace set by Cameron Tringale and two shots behind the golfers tied for second place. The young Chilean started his week at 20th in the FedExCup race.

The 23-year-old adds a second top 10 in the event in five visits after a T6 on debut in 2018 as a non-member in his fifth career start as a pro. He improves to 13-for-17 on the season with eight top 25s, three consecutive, and four top 10s, first since bagging the Genesis Invitational nine starts ago in wire-to-wire fashion for a second TOUR victory. On Sunday, the Chilean began T7, seven shy of overnight leader Horschel, and made a nice run with five birdies, including on each of the four par 5s, but swallowed two double bogey-6s at 14 (missed bogey-save from 5'5") and 18, the latter from the fairway, which dropped him out of a would-be two-way T2. For the week, he recorded rounds of 71-69-70-71, totaled 21 birdies, T1 in that stat, against eight bogeys and three doubles, and ranked 7th SG: Tee-to-Green (8.736), 4.672 TTG on Sunday, and 24th SG: Putting (2.661), lowlighted by a -1.458 SGP in R4. See link below to post-tourney comments.

The 23-year-old, who will be in the fourth-to-last twosome in R4 with defender Patrick Cantlay, had it to 5-under on the day (6 birdies, 1 bogey) before ending with bogey-5 at 13 (3-putt from 61'4"), double bogey-5 at 16 and bogey-5 at 17 (missed par-saver from 8'6"), but did wrap on a high note with a 19'2" birdie-3 at the last. On 10 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he lost strokes on approach (-0.235) and around-the-green (-1.889), but gained 1.158 off-the-tee and 3.214 on-the-green, converting five scoring chances from between 10 and 34 feet. Thru 54 holes, the Chilean has handed in rounds of 71-69-70, and ranks 7th SG: OTT (3.068), 60th SG: ARG (-1.581), and 9th SGP (4.119). He’s chasing a third TOUR victory in 110 events, first since the Genesis Invitational eight starts ago, where he won wire-to-wire after being the 54-hole leader by three.

Niemann started his morning with a 12'11" birdie at the par-4 10th and ended with a 10'9" birdie at the 9th. What happened in between was a bit of a rollercoaster. It was smooth sailing out of the gate with three birdies and one bogey before making the turn. “Then from No. 2 I couldn’t hit the driver as like I wanted to and I started missing a lot of shots. I started losing control of my game. Even though I made like five or six bogeys, I don’t know, on the back nine, I thought it could have been a little worse. I just take out the positives of that and thinking that I can scramble a lot.” Niemann splashed home four putts from outside of nine feet on his homeward nine, helping him to limit the damage. Despite the struggle to the finish, the young Chilean was still two shots better than the field scoring average from the morning wave (73.09) and is now hovering around the top 10 heading into the weekend. Playing in his 13th career major, his previous best finish is just a T23 at the 2020 U.S. Open. It’s a surprising lack of big finishes so far but surely set to change with the way his game continues to mature.

The Chilean is in a nine-way T7, joined there by countryman Mito Pereira, and was happy about that. “It’s nice to see on the first page two Chilean flags and a Mexican flag, too.” Last week in Texas at the Byron Nelson, he was solo 3rd thru 54 holes, two back, and swallowed a 2-over 74 out of the final threesome to plummet to T25. That 74 was the only over-par lap of the final three groups -- and the only one not in the 60s -- but has brushed that off with a strong beginning today in Oklahoma. On nine (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, the 23-year-old lost 0.032 strokes on approach but gained 1.612 off-the-tee, 1.190 around and 2.056 with the flat stick, buoyed by three scoring conversions from between 14 and 28 feet. This is his fifth PGA with a best of T30 last year, and so far, has just one top 25 in 12 overall majors, a T23 at the 2021 U.S. Open at Winged Foot. See link below to post-round comments.

The Chilean, making his second appearance, first since a MC in 2018 (Trinity Forest), will be in the final threesome on Sunday with Colombian and North Texas alum Munoz and Dallas native and resident Jordan Spieth, scheduled for 11:30 am local. He owns two TOUR victories in 107 events, the 2020 Greenbrier and this season’s Genesis Invitational, both of those as the 54-hole leader by two and three shots, respectively. Today, the 23-year-old rang up eight birdies against one bogey on seven (of 14) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, losing 0.262 strokes on approach but gaining 0.922 off-the-tee, 0.652 around, and 2.224 on-the-green, the latter despite missing two putts from inside of 10 feet at 16 and 18. Thru 54 holes, he ranks 18th SG: Tee-to-Green (5.129), including a 47th-ranking on approach (0.440), and 5th SG: Putting (5.696). See link below to post-round comments.

Niemann started his morning on the 10th tee and got right to work with circles on four of his first five holes with a missed chance from inside of 11 feet on the other. He would add two more before the turn but slowed his pace. He found just two scoring chances from inside of 15 feet on his homeward nine. " I thought I was going to catch Sebastian’s round, the way I started, but didn’t get that fire going on the other holes. But, yeah, I putted pretty good the first couple holes and then it was hard to get it going.” Niemann shares a piece of fifth place on the live leaderboard and has now been T12 or better after 10 of his last 12 pre-cut rounds in stroke-play events. He’s turned just one of those fast starts into a top-20 finish but will try to shift that storyline this weekend.