Niemann sets his sights on major step-up
JOAQUIN NIEMANN was among players who risked being shut out of the majors when he chose to sign for Saudi money at LIV Golf, and that remains mostly true.
Niemann, a 25-year-old from Chile, won his first LIV event last week at Mayakoba in the dark against close friend Sergio Garcia. The LIV broadcast crew didn’t waste any time taking the conversation to the majors, asking Niemann if he felt the win would get their attention.
‘I want to win majors, but I’ve got to get in first,; he said.
Niemann faced the prospect of no majors in 2024 (unless he qualified for the two Opens). But he won the Australian Open in December, which is cosanctioned by the European tour and part of the International Final Qualifying series, to earn a spot in the British Open.
He is No. 74 in the Official World Golf Ranking without any tournaments on the schedule where a win can put him into the top 50 and earn a bid to the Masters. If he stays in the top 100 by the end of April, he should expect a spot in the PGA Championship.
LIV currently has seven players in the top 100 — four of them new to the Saudi-funded league this year — and opportunities will be dwindling. This was always the choice — giving up the chance to play in majors to take money they never imagined.
Talor Gooch won three times on LIV last year but was not a factor in any of his OWGR-counting events (he missed the cut in two majors). He is No. 394 in the world and likely would be shut out of the majors.
Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer, said in an interview last year he would consider all tours. That’s still to be determined. Augusta National has yet to announce if it will award any special invitations. Those typically are restricted to international players who are not PGA Tour members, because a PGA Tour member would have ample opportunity to earn an invitation.
Could a LIV player fall under that category? If not this year, that would be an indication to LIV players that getting into the majors might be more difficult than winning a play-off in the dark.
As for Niemann, the idea of missing the majors motivated him.
‘I have a different mindset for this year,’ he said. ‘It kind of hurt me a little bit not being in the majors and I think also helped me to get motivation to kind of earn my spot back into the majors, into the elite players. I think it helped me a little bit to get focus back, to start working harder, to start working with a purpose.’
Meanwhile, U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark said he spoke with LIV
Golf representatives over a potential switch to the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit but when he thought about his ‘legacy’ in the game, he opted to stick with the PGA Tour — for this season at least.
The 30-year-old moved up to the sixth in the world rankings after he was declared the winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which was reduced to 54 holes due to weather conditions in Northern California on Sunday.
Englishman Tyrrell Hatton became the latest high-profile name to join LIV last month, joining a team led by Masters champion Jon Rahm, who made a big-money move in December.
Clark said he was interested to see what kind of proposal LIV would put forward.
‘I ultimately declined going to LIV because I felt like I still have a lot of things left in the tank on the PGA Tour and I wanted to chase records, I wanted to chase world ranking,’ Clark insisted,
‘My dream is to try to be one of the top players in the world if not the top player. I just grew up always imagining winning PGA Tour events. So I ultimately, I chose my legacy over LIV... that’s really what it came down to.’
Clark said Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods gave him advice as he tried to come to a decision over his future.
‘I don’t know what the future holds with my career and what the PGA Tour and LIV is going to do, but at least for this season I am 100 per cent set on the PGA Tour and I want to try to get to as high in the world as I possibly can,’ he added.
“It kind of hurt
me, not being in the majors”