Joaquin Niemann further strengthened his claim to be considered the best player on LIV Golf right now, with the Chilean winning for the third time this season, with his victory this past week.
Joaquin Niemann was able to take advantage of yet another underwhelming final day for Bryson DeChambeau at LIV Golf Mexico City, with the 26-year-old going into the last round three shots off the lead at Club de Golf Chapultepec.
Niemann has now won three times in his last five starts on LIV. He also has more LIV victories this year than DeChambeau has had in his entire time in the league.
But he will not be surprised to see that one area of the game where Niemann has not performed well has been one of the main talking points following his win.
Dan Rapaport reacts as Joaquin Niemann wins at LIV Golf Mexico City
Niemann was backed to contend at The Masters given his form on LIV. However, it proved to be a fairly underwhelming week at Augusta National, as he finished just inside the top 30 after getting off to an electric start on Thursday.
Unfortunately for Niemann, the pressure on his shoulders is going to ramp up. He has never finished inside the top 15 in one of the sport’s four biggest events.
He is still young, and thus, some may deem criticism of Niemann’s major record to be unfair. But speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport insisted that his performances absolutely should be under the microscope.
“Now I’m obligated to state that his best finish in 23 major starts is a T16 at the 2023 Masters. He was tied for 29th this year in The Masters. And before you say, ‘oh, that’s anti-LIV bias’, if there was a guy on the PGA Tour who had won five times in the last year and he couldn’t finish top 15 in a major, we’d talk about it also,” he said following his win.
“If a guy was playing as well as he was on any tour and then wasn’t doing it in the majors, it’s something to talk about. He’s up to around $50 million in career earnings, but again, I want to see what he does at Quail Hollow.”
What LIV Golf desperately needs in the majors as it looks to silence its critics
Whether rightly or wrongly, LIV Golf is still fighting for credibility amongst much of the golfing world. And that credibility is only going to come about from how their players perform in the majors.
Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are the only LIV players to have won a major since leaving the PGA Tour. Jon Rahm had such a disappointing year in the majors in 2024. Meanwhile, no player has won their first major since joining LIV.
Niemann appears to be their best hope right now. But that pressure on his shoulders is increasing with each underwhelming showing in the majors.
Even LIV’s biggest supporters can see that it does the league few favours to have their best player not contend in the majors.
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