Joaquin Niemann

The young Chilean currently ranks 19th in the OWGR, slightly down from his best of 15th following the Masters this spring. He's played four full seasons on the PGA TOUR and made it to East Lake in each of the last three. He's piled up 10 starts in major championships but never finished better than T23 in any of those starts. His commitment to LIV will knock him out of the Presidents Cup with Cameron Smith also making the jump today, removing two of the International team qualifiers. Playing in this week's Boston event will result in a PGA TOUR suspension for both and last week's TOUR Championship was the last we'll see of them on the PGA TOUR circuit, at least for the foreseeable future. Other players to make the jump to LIV Golf this week include Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, Harold Varner III, and Cameron Tringale. 

Niemann opened at 2-under in the starting strokes format, eight shots off the lead. He made up a large chunk of that deficit rather quickly today, pelting 14 greens to rank 1st in strokes gained approach at the time he signed his card. What made it more surprising was his lack of success here in two previous visits, losing two-plus strokes to the field in six of those eight rounds. "After remembering the last two years, I've never seen a good round for myself, so it's nice to see a good round finally and knowing that I'm able to give a score on this course, so yeah, hopefully see a few more of these rounds." The young Chilean is now on page one of the TOUR Championship leaderboard with three rounds remaining.

The young Chilean ranked 5th in strokes gained tee-to-green this week but failed to find any momentum with the flat stick. He ended the week ranked 46th in strokes gained putting. His steady striking resulted in just six bogeys, tied for third best in the field, but his cold putter yielded just 15 birdies (T25 in the field). This is Niemann's fourth season on the PGA TOUR and the third straight season where he's played his way into the TOUR Championship (27th in 2020, 29th in 2021). 

Niemann pelted 15 greens on day one but settled for 10 today while playing in tougher, afternoon conditions. Highlights of his round included a 32-footer to save par at the eighth and a 38'9" hole out for birdie at the 11th. Niemann missed the cut two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship but he's right back in the hunt, just five shots off the torrid pace set by Cameron Tringale and two shots behind the golfers tied for second place. The young Chilean started his week at 20th in the FedExCup race.