When Joaquin Niemann played junior golf, he didn’t want his parents or siblings watching him play. “I felt like I needed to focus because I’d get nervous and feel a lot of pressure when I played,” Niemann told Golf Digest.
Since then Niemann has become accustomed to playing in front of people and it’s a good thing he has. The 20-year-old from Santiago, Chile – already considered a promising player before this week – now joins the burgeoning list of young players already with a PGA Tour victory, having won the Military Tribute at The Greenbrier event by six shots over Tom Hoge with a final-round 64.
It was from the fairway where Niemann won the tournament. He ranked second in greens in regulation for the week, hitting 58 of 72 for an impressive 80.5 percent clip with his Ping iBlade irons and the company’s Glide Forged wedges (he uses a Glide 2.0 wedge for his pitching wedge as well). Niemann uses Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet grips on the clubs.
The iBlade irons have thin, hot face but accounts for that with an elastomer insert that supports the face from heel to toe for improved sound and feel. The material allows the face to flex at impact and filter vibrations for a soft feel. Stability also gets a boost from a high-density tungsten block in the low toe.
Even closer in, Niemann used his wedges on approach shots that set up four of his six birdies on the closing nine and when he got within close range, he converted, ranking first in strokes gained/putting with his platinum-finish Ping Vault 2.0 Dale Anser putter, picking up more than eight shots on the field on the greens.
The kind of performance that will have a lot of people looking at him in the future.
The clubs Joaquin Niemann used to win A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Driver: Ping G400 LST (Graphite Design Tour AD DI-7), 10 degrees
3-wood: Ping G410, 14.5 degrees
Hybrid: Ping G400, 19 degrees
Irons (4-9): Ping iBlade; (PW): Ping Glide 2.0
Wedges: Ping Glide Forged (52, 56, 60 degrees)
Putter: Ping Vault 2.0 Dale Anser
