[PHOTO: Thananuwat Srirasant]
Joaquin Niemann just keeps cruising. The 26-year-old from Chile shot a six-under 65 on Sunday at Sentosa Golf Club to run away with the LIV Golf Singapore event, topping Brooks Koepka by five shots. Dustin Johnson, who was tied with Niemann entering the final round, ballooned to a 73 and tied for fifth place, eight shots behind.
“Today was one of those days,” said Niemann, who won by three shots at LIV Golf Adelaide just a month ago. “Everything went my way.”
The victory is Niemann’s fourth LIV Golf title. He took home a $US4 million first-place prizemoney payout for this win from the overall $US20 million purse. Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs squad won its third consecutive team title this season. Abraham Ancer, Luis Masaveau and David Puig round out Garcia’s team, which will split $US3 million for the victory.
“This week was a tough week because I’ve been sick all week and haven’t been able to help the team as much as I would have liked to,” said Garcia, who won the individual title last week in Hong Kong and tied for 32nd place in Singapore. “To see the performance that my teammates put in to be able to get this win was pretty impressive.”
The individual battle between Niemann and Johnson never materialised as Niemann birdied the first hole, then added four more during a five-hole stretch later on the front nine. He ended the week at 17-under-par total. Johnson made four bogeys in the first 11 holes and was out of contention at that point.
Niemann’s closest pursuer was Koepka, who birdied each of his first three holes – was five-under after eight holes – and ended up shooting 65. He was the defending champion of the event in Singapore and finished at 12-unde-par.
“Not really hitting it great,” Koepka said, “but kind of tried to figure out how to finish second because first was obviously out of reach.”
Niemann now tops the league’s individual standings after four events, leading Jon Rahm and Garcia. Rahm shot a final-round 67 – his 21st consecutive LIV Golf round under par – and tied for fifth place. Niemann hopes to continue his good form as his position on the ranking has him in line to earn an exemption into the US Open in three months at Oakmont. The top player not already exempt into the US Open field after the Korea event in early May will qualify. It’s the only major championship this year for which Niemann has not yet qualified.
“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. I feel like that’s not my main focus. It’s obviously something that it would favour 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.”
The league now will take a couple weeks off before heading to Doral in Miami the week before the Masters.
