Rory McIlroy and Joaquin Niemann have deservedly stolen the headlines in world golf, having become the latest PGA Tour and LIV Golf champions respectively.
McIlroy loved playing at TPC Sawgrass, where he defeated J.J. Spaun in a playoff to win his second Players Championship title.
It also represented a 28th PGA Tour win for McIlroy, who was also successful at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year.
Niemann is also now a two-time winner in 2025, with the Chilean having just triumphed at LIV Golf Singapore.
He also won at Adelaide earlier this season, with the Torque GC captain now top of the LIV Golf individual standings.
Dan Rapaport says Joaquin Niemann is not playing better than Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson thinks Niemann is the world’s best golfer, but Dan Rapaport thinks the Chilean is behind McIlroy at this moment in time.
“Joaquin Niemann wins again,” he said on the Dan on Golf podcast. “He won by five shots over Brooks Koepka and nobody other than Bryson [DeChambeau] has benefitted more from the move to LIV Golf.
“He won twice on the PGA Tour, he has now won four times on LIV. His on-course earnings in 33 events, so a season and a half on the PGA Tour, $48.5 million.
“He is in first place and likely to get an exemption into the US Open. He is already into three of the other majors. LIV are trying really hard to pump up Joaquin. I get it.
“They have a young player who is 26 who’s playing incredibly and they are trying to push him up into that Rory and Scottie [Scheffler] conversation but this is a problem that they have had.
“LIV can sign stars, they have done that in the past with Bryson and Brooks and [Jon] Rahm. But can they make stars?
“Can someone become a star just on LIV? I would say you have to play well in the majors. But Phil Mickelson is certainly drinking the Joaquin Niemann Kool-Aid. Phil in his content era.
“I don’t think he is playing better golf than Rory McIlroy and my take on Joaquin Niemann is that he has got to do more in the majors.
“His best-ever finish in a major is to tie for 16th at the 2023 Masters and he has had 22 starts. So five and a half years of playing the major championships and not a single top 15 finish.
“I appreciate what he is doing on LIV, I will say if the Players was a 54-hole tournament then J.J. Spaun would have won it.
“So don’t underestimate 54 vs 72 holes. But the guys playing on LIV who have had major success have made their stardom on the PGA Tour.”
How did Joaquin Niemann do in the 2024 major championships?
Niemann will be in the field for the first major championship of 2025, when Augusta National plays host to the Masters next month.
He will be desperate to prove his worth among a whole host of PGA Tour stars, a feat which DeChambeau accomplished last season with his US Open win.
It was, however, Scheffler and Xander Schauffele who dominated the major season last time out as the former won the Masters and the latter won the PGA Championship and The Open Championship.
Niemann meanwhile failed to make a real impact in three of the four events, although he did manage a top 10 finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
| Tournament | Position | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | To par |
| Masters | T22 | 70 | 78 | 71 | 73 | 292 | +4 |
| PGA Championship | T39 | 73 | 68 | 69 | 67 | 277 | -7 |
| The Open Championship | T58 | 71 | 71 | 76 | 76 | 294 | +10 |
| Men’s Olympic Golf Competition | T9 | 66 | 70 | 68 | 68 | 272 | -12 |
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
