Joaquin Niemann is developing a knack of winning the first LIV Golf event after a major, with the Chilean’s victory this past week the third time that he has achieved that feat this year.
Joaquin Niemann moved himself to the brink of winning the individual title on LIV Golf with his win at LIV Golf UK over the weekend. The 26-year-old finished three shots clear of Bubba Watson at JCB.
It was Niemann’s fifth win this season. It is a remarkable return for the Torque captain, who broke his own record for the most victories in LIV Golf’s history on Sunday.
Phil Mickelson previously labelled Niemann the best player in the world in March. And he is not the only LIV star to make a big claim about his quality.
Jon Rahm’s comments about Joaquin Niemann are questioned following LIV Golf UK
His performance last week prompted Jon Rahm to claim that Niemann is ‘severely underrated’. The Spaniard put the youngster among the top 10 players in the world right now.
There is no question that Niemann has had a phenomenal year in many ways. However, his doubters do not have to work very hard to find a big problem with Rahm’s claim.
Niemann missed the cut at the US Open and The Open Championship. Meanwhile, he has just one top 10 in 26 major starts across his career. Scottie Scheffler, on the other hand, has four wins in 25.
And speaking on Five Clubs about Rahm’s comments, Gary Williams insisted that Niemann has so much more to prove before he is considered one of the very best on the planet.
“Underrated is a fascinating term, so’s overrated. We use them a lot for the people who do this, whether it’s specifically golf or anything else. ‘Overrated!’ ‘Underrated!’ ‘No, he’s not!’ ‘Yes he is!’ The idea that he is underrated, why? Because to me, in order to be underrated, you have to do things in the biggest events that maybe people are not paying enough attention to,” he said.
“I’m sorry, the idea that he’s a top 10 player in the world and he’s played in 26 majors and he’s only got one top 10 – that’s the challenge for Joaquin Niemann now, because it’s wonderful that his peer group on LIV is saying that he’s this and he’s that. But when you get to those events where you share space with all the other people on that horizon and landscape that is dotted by the best players in the world, and you come up small – and I mean small – he missed the cut in the last two majors, how is that guy underrated? Sorry, he’s not.
“He’s played in 26 major championships and he has one measly – and I mean measly – top 10. Sorry dude, you’ve got to show up at Augusta next spring and start putting top 10s together. And by the way, for people to consider you to be among the 10 best players in the world, you know what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to get in the blender and that is within two to three shots of the lead in a major with nine holes to go. He hasn’t experienced that once in his career. That’s not to say he won’t, he could start doing it next year. But 26 is a reasonable size of sampling for all of us to determine that’s underperforming, not underrated.”
How Joaquin Niemann reacted to Jon Rahm’s comments
Niemann is not the first player to struggle to realise his full potential on the biggest stages. It would not be a surprise at all to see his major record improve dramatically in the years to come. He certainly seems to have the tools to win one of the big prizes.
Interestingly, Rahm’s comments were put to him after his victory at JCB. And Niemann did not shy away from admitting that he would put himself alongside the very best.
“Yeah, for sure. I feel like I can — anywhere that I go if I play my best game I know I can win. I think that’s the only thing that kind of matters for me, is to find that A-game more often,” he said.
“But, yeah, I mean, it is what it is. I love golf. I love competing. I love working for improvement and try to find those improvements, and I feel like every time it’s harder and harder to find those small margins.
“Yeah, that’s what drives me. Yeah, I mean, I’m really looking forward for what’s coming for the end of the season.”
The problem for Niemann is that there is nothing left for him to prove until major championship season starts to loom on the horizon again next April.
Until then, he is going to have little choice but to have people debate just whether he truly is as special as a five-win season would suggest.
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