Joaquin Niemann played like a man possessed for three days at Riviera Country Club but on Sunday, the harsh reality of victory in a huge PGA Tour event had him working with all his might.
Niemann set records for three days at the Genesis Invitational and blew most of the field away through 54 holes but on Sunday, he plodded his way around the testy championship course, finished with an even par 71 but it was good enough for a winning 19-under par total.
In the process, Niemann became the first player to go wire-to-wire in the Los Angeles-based event since the late Charlie Sifford in 1969.
“Oh my God, this weekend felt like a month,” Niemann said after he parred the 18th to win by two shots over major champion Collin Morikawa and rookie Cameron Young. “It’s amazing. No words to describe it.”
There were no words to describe Niemann’s first two rounds as he shot back-to-back 63s. No one in the history of the PGA Tour had started an event with a pair of 63s. He set the 36-hole scoring mark for the tournament then after his 68 on Saturday, he was 19-under, owner of the 54-hole record.
But an up-and-down day left him a shot short of Lanny Wadkins 20-under record, set back in 1985.
He started the day with a three-shot lead over playing partner Young. Things didn’t start that well for Niemann as he missed a four-footer for birdie at the easy par five first hole. Six straight pars then a three-putt bogey at the seventh that cut his lead to a shot over Young. But a birdie by Niemann at the eighth and a bogey by Young grew the lead back to three.
Niemann then got the victory spark he need at the par five 11th where he chipped in for eagle. That took him to 21-under and his lead grew to five shots.
There would be no back nine birdies for Joaquin as the Sunday pressure mounted. Collin Morikawa was making a run at him and things got testy for Niemann when he suffered back-to-back bogeys at 14 and 15. That took him back to even par for the round.
Morikawa missed a 10-footer for birdie at the 18th but he shot 32 coming home, including a pitch-in eagle at the par fourth 10th. Morikawa shot the day’s low round — a 65 that tied him for second with Young.
As for Niemann, it was his second win and a huge one given the select field that included all the world’s top 10.
“Surprised my myself how good I played,” Niemann said referring to his 63-63 start. “Told myself (going into the weekend) ‘we gotta finish this.'”
He did.
Wasn’t easy but then wins on the PGA Tour rarely are.
How The World’s Top 10 Performed:
Jon Rahm (1): 69-73-70-65 7-under; T21
Collin Morikawa (2): 67-67-68-65 17-under; T2
Pat Cantlay (3): 70-72-66-71 5-under; T33
Viktor Hovland (4): 71-64-65-70 14-under; T4
Rory McIlroy (5): 69-70-67-68 10-under; T10
Dustin Johnson (6): MC 73-71
Xander Schauffele (7): 69-70-66-70 9-under; ;T13
Justin Thomas (8): 67-64-70-70 13-under; 6th
Scottie Scheffler (9): 66-72-65-69 12-under; T7
Hideki Matsuyama (10): 72-70-68-70 4-under T39
2 Comments
baxter cepeda
(Sorry Tom it’s gonna be a bit long)
Everything about Niemans week at Riviera was incredible, especially considering where it happened.
The weather was mostly perfect, the rough was down, and that freak sleet storm 2 days before the first tee shot of the tournament softened things up a bit…but still.
What this young man with the biggest side bend in golf did this week has me thinking how much side bend We should all be doing.
Of course everyone wants to talk about the potential for back injury with that side bend. But maybe he has no issues at all.
I mean the guy is Chilean Gumby. I don’t think most of us could do anything close to that side bend if we tried. And am not sure he could stop doing it if he tried. It’s very natural for him.
The 72 hole record didn’t happen as that Sunday pressure set in; but also some colder air coming form the ocean made the meat of the back 9 tough Sunday; 12 to 16 play straight into it.
But still. It was a magical Sunday for the eventual winner. There was that ultra clutch birdie at 8. He played 10 perfectly for that pin, just didn’t make the tough putt. Par is a great score there anyway. More on that later. The chip in at 11 was also ultra clutch. It seemed to Kinda close the door right there. But of course as Tom said it’s never that easy.
This was most evident when Young pitches in. Just another incredible moment in Young’s week, which IMO was equally impressive to Niemans the way the rook basically held on to second place wire to wire.
Morikawa and Hovland both seemed on absolute missions to finish as high as they possibly could in this event; likely because both have numero uno square in their sights.
Morikawa could have been numero uno with a win, which goes a long way to explaining what led to those two unbelievable pitch ins of his own. Face melting pitch ins.
Of course Hovland still doesn’t have that chip in magic in him just yet, still very low in those rankings, and had some disappointing chips down the stretch. But still. The 2 young stars never let up which only made Niemans and Young’s achievements that much greater.
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Speaking of greater, how great can Riv be?
Even in a week where record scoring happened there, The only thing that was talked about is the greatness of the achievement by the athlete, because Rivieras ability to stand the test of time is never in question.
Anything but actually. The only questions being asked are if this place should be used for men’s majors again. And if this event should be considered the most important non major; or first in line for fifth major; NOT that that should EVER happen.
Another thing that should NEVER happen is “renovating” the greens at Riviera, especially 10. It played better than ever this week.
Very Important Note to the membership at Riv:
Even if every member of the cbs broadcast crew petitions you (the membership at Riv) to soften 10 and the other greens—this is very important now— DON’T!
These days when renovations happen, what’s really happening is a major softening of the course.
If the members at Riv are thinking about letting someone come in to soften their greens, they should first go look at pebbles new greens and compare them to the older ones up there in Monterrey. What they will find is smoother greens and more made putts, but certainly not better greens. Don’t get me wrong pebble still has amazing greens but they were better before.
Now while Riviera is a beautiful place, it’s no pebble beach. Pebble can easily afford a less interesting design on its greens. While Riv has many things going for itself Rivieras main claim to fame is its green designs. Riv simply cannot afford to have some hot shot contemporary golf course softener come in and annihilate a century of maturing in the name of pace of play and elite golfers egos.
The commentators love to talk about how sand from bunkers change slopes around greens as a reason to come in and do these multi million dollar softening renovations; as if the greatest designers of all time Like George C Thomas didn’t understand exactly how time would change their designs.
Those guys did what they did for good reason. Great reasons.
They probably understood over time many things like equipment and agronomy would make the game easier, and therefore the changing slopes from sand bunkers would help balance that.
I certainly don’t think the great designers would expect someone to come in less than a century later and completely dig up their carefully planned work —only to (again) make the course easier so it plays a bit faster and doesn’t mess with elite players egos too much.
A lot of people are tired of the Saudi league talk these days. What I’m tired of is all this talk about the game getting too easy, which is true. But all everyone seems to be doing is making the game easier.
Golf is a game for being challenged. Riviera, even as records are being set on it, still challenges the best. If it wants to stay relevant as one of the great challenges in golf, the challenge will be literally doing nothing. Easier said then done.
baxter cepeda
All my Niemanns came out with one n. Gotta love spell check.