JOAQUIN NIEMANN

"I went in with my eyes open"

Joaquin Niemann tells David Facey he has no regrets about his LIV Golf move and reveals his ambitions to leave a lasting legacy...

You get the impression Joaquin Niemann doesn’t mind being one of the most talked-about golfers in the game. Not one bit. He is used to it. Niemann has been hogging the headlines for his globetrotting pursuit of world rankings points, as the poster boy for the pundits who claim LIV tournaments should award those points and also, of course, for his golf.

The on-course highlights included a wild and wonderful Australian Open victory, finishing the tournament by making birdie from behind a catering marquee to force a play-off and then closing it out in style with an eagle at the second extra hole. Then came a 59 to set up his first win on the LIV Golf circuit in Mexico, closely followed by a second $4million payday in Jeddah.

But jaw-dropping exploits are nothing new to the 25-year-old from Santiago. He first served notice of his talent when he stormed to the top of the World Amateur Golf Rankings in May 2017 and stayed there for 44 weeks – a staggering achievement for a player who did not have access to the US college circuit, where most of the events are rich in ranking points. Sound familiar?

Niemann was actually headhunted by the University of South Florida, but he was denied a place there by the US education authorities who ruled his English was not good enough. It is hard to believe that now, given the confident manner in which Niemann handles interviews laced with barbed queries about LIV’s loadsamoney set-up, and the never-to-be-avoided questions about world ranking points.

But returning to Niemann’s early days, he makes it clear he doesn’t buy into the theory that not playing the college circuit meant his long reign as the world’s best amateur was even more noteworthy.

“No, it was easier for me,” he insists. “Those guys at college have to study as well as playing golf. All I had to do was play golf!”

OBVIOUS TALENT

Niemann certainly made it look easy. He concentrated on taking on the professionals in his home country, and rattled up six of his seven wins on the Chilean Tour while he was still an amateur – the first of them just six days after his 18th birthday.

“Those wins against professional golfers earned me a lot of points,” he recalls. “But the victory that meant most to me was when I won the 2018 Latin America Amateur Championship and earned a place in The Masters that year. It was third time lucky for me, because I was third in the Latin American in 2016 and then lost in a play-off the following year.

“Playing in The Masters was always my dream growing up,” he says. “It was the event I watched most often on TV and it was so special to be there wit