Joaquin Niemann’s LIV Golf dominance heats up bubbling PGA Tour rumors

Joaquín Niemann delivered yet another masterful performance on the LIV circuit, shooting a bogey-free 6-under 65 in the final round of the Singapore tournament, finishing at 17-under par, an impressive five stroke lead over Brooks Koepka. Sunday’s win was also his second in just four events this season, adding to his four-title tally for the team league.

LIV isn’t the only tour he’s performing well on. On the Asian Tour, he achieved a T3 spot at the International Series India on the Asian Tour just last month and he won the PIF Saudi International last December. Those wins alone bumped him up in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) to 68th at the time, after having sat outside the T100 at 124th. Niemann currently sits at 82nd — due to mostly playing on the LIV Tour, which gains no ranking points — and many think the rankings inaccurately reflects the true status of a player such as Niemann.

According to Phil Mickelson, the 26-year-old Chilean player would easily qualify for the No. 1 spot. Even if that’s a bit of a stretch — considering the dominance of current world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler — there are arguments to be made for Niemann to sit in the T20 or T10 of all current professional golfers, regardless of where you sit on the LIV-PGA war (Merger? Truce? Wherever we are in post-war negotiations). Certainly, this is one of the contentious issues that will hopefully get ironed out as the (forever) ongoing talks between the PGA and LIV continue on.

As the top ranked individual in the LIV league, Niemann has already qualified for The Masters and is preparing for the first major of the year, which is coming up in a few weeks. He was asked about his preparation for the Augusta major.

"I mean, just keep doing the same stuff,” Niemann said, after his win in Singapore, according to Sportskeeda. “Masters, obviously is just the first major of the year. It's just another golf tournament. Just going to work hard these next two weeks and try and be as ready as I can be," he added.

Joaquín Niemann has eyes on U.S. Open qualification and more

In addition to The Masters, Niemann hopes to qualify for the U.S. Open, the only major he’s hasn’t qualified for.

“Obviously it's one of the goals to qualify for the majors,” Niemann said. “Yeah, I feel like it just comes. Hopefully I can get that spot before Miami [LIV]. I feel like that's not my main focus. It's obviously something that it would favor me if I play good golf, but like I said before, I'm here to make my team win, to get a good result for them and motivate them to do those good results.”

Niemann’s name has also been tossed into the mix of the PGA-LIV talks. One of the negotiating points is the reassimilation of some aspect of LIV into the PGA. According to Golf Digest, three players are a priority to be reassimilated into the PGA Tour, including Jon Rahm, Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. Additionally, there are two other names who in that scenario, being Cameron Smith and Niemann.

“What I'm optimistic about, what I'm energized by specifically is the momentum that we have with our fans… I'd say from point one, we're committed to these negotiations and to doing everything that we can to drive to reunification for our fans,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “That said, we're not going to do anything that diminishes the strength of our platform or that momentum that we have with our fans and partners. And then, importantly, we're going to continue to take aggressive action with everything that we control to make certain that we're doing everything in our power to present and evolve the best version of our tour.”

Having those five players is the minimum golf fans would expect to keep the sport fully competitive again.

Hopefully the rankings are also on the table in the merger talks. Considering that Koepka won two of the four majors last year, but is currently ranked 181, this is not a true picture of golf greatness. Would Scheffler still be No. 1? Sure, but there is at least a handful of LIV players who would be in at least the T50, perhaps the T20.

Niemann would certainly be there. And he will one of the top contenders for The Masters, which starts April 10.