Joaquin Niemann reveals what really surprised him about the crowd at the Olympic golf event on day one

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Joaquín Niemann has revealed what really surprised him about the crowds at Le Golf National after his opening round at the Olympic golf event.

Joaquín Niemann has made an incredibly positive start to the Olympic Games, shooting a five under par round of 66 to leave himself amongst the chasing pack, three shots back of Hideki Matsuyama.

Some were backing Niemann to do well at the Olympics given that he is the individual leader on LIV this season, winning twice earlier in the year. He has only finished outside of the top 10 on two occasions.

The 25-year-old has not had the best time in the majors this year; failing to break into the top 20 in any of the three majors that he played. But it is not entirely surprising that he was able to produce an impressive first round just outside Paris as he looks to take an Olympic medal back to Chile.

Joaquín Niemann reveals what surprised him about Olympic golf event

This is an important event for golf as it looks to re-establish itself as an Olympic event, with problems emerging in both 2016 and 2021. This is arguably the most complete field the sport has seen since it returned to the Games eight years ago.

Nevertheless, it seems that the amount of interest caught Niemann off guard, judging by his comments after his round on Thursday.

“I have some expectations after Japan, we didn’t have any crowds. I was excited to see what was going to happen here. I was also surprised there’s a lot of people out here. Victor was in front of me and you could tell how they were cheering for him. It was pretty cool for the first day,” he said.

Flying the flag for his country and LIV

Of course, there is added significance to this year’s Olympics, as it is the first being played since the formation of LIV Golf, and thus, this represents one of the only events where the best from the two tours could potentially face off.

Niemann is one of the LIV players in the field this week, so he may also be motivated by proving that his game is in a good place compared with many of the other best players on the planet.

There is no question that he is off to a very good start in his pursuit of a medal.