PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Jon Rahm and his Legion XIII’s debut was set to be the talk of the first round of LIV Golf’s 2024 season opener, but the big man from the Basque region of Spain took a backseat to Joaquin Niemann on Friday.
Niemann fired the second LIV Golf round of sub-60 in the last seven months on Friday, a blistering and bogey-free 12-under 59 that featured 10 birdies and a hole-out for eagle. It’s the second lowest round in LIV’s young history following Bryson DeChambeau’s 12-under 58 in the final round to win LIV Golf Greenbrier last August.
“I could see 8-, 9-under, but I would confidently say that I would have bet a lot of money against a 59 here this week just because of how narrow the fairways are,” said Rahm of Niemann’s round.
“He owes me money then. How much was it?” Niemann joked in response. “Yeah, I wouldn’t think the same, either. I think the fairways are playing a lot tighter than they used to be. The rough is a lot trickier, too. It’s a little longer, and you’ve got a lot of different lies, which is tricky.”
“But man, I played amazing golf,” he continued. “Whenever I was hitting the ball, sometimes I was getting good lies, good bounces into the fairways, good numbers, so everything came out pretty good during the whole day.”
With the shotgun start, Niemann began his round on No. 2 at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Course and made par before he rattled off seven birdies over his next eight holes. From the fairway on the par-4 11th, the Torque GC captain one-hopped his ball on the green and into the cup for eagle to move to 9 under through 10 holes and put his round on 59 watch.
“I think I hit a great shot on No. 10. It’s always a tricky hole, No. 10, especially with that pin on the left. You don’t want to miss it left,” Niemann explained. “But then on the right, you’ve got the water, and I was able to have a good number. Hit a great 7-iron to like three, four feet, and I think that was the best shot of the day for me.”
Birdies at Nos. 13 and 15 moved Niemann to 11 under with four holes to play on the par-71 track. His birdie putt on No. 16 came up less than a foot short of falling, leading to a disappointing par. From the first cut rough on the 17th, Niemann stuffed his approach inside five feet to set up a clutch birdie to move to 12-under with two holes to play. On No. 18, his second-to-last hole, Niemann pulled his birdie putt left so he had to take par.
“Yeah, I knew I was close. I knew that the course could have been 71, could have been 72. But I didn’t want to do the math and start counting how many par-5s and par-3s there is on the golf course,” said Niemann, noting he didn’t think about the 59 until his penultimate hole. “But then I got to 18, and a few guys were shouting, ‘Come on, Joaco, go for the 58,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m right there.'”
On the par-4 1st hole, Niemann found the fairway off the tee and just missed the green from 110 yards out. Putting from off the green for this third shot he rolled his ball within a few feet of the cup and then tapped in for a historic round 59 that set the course record.
Sergio Garcia had one word for Niemann’s round: amazing.
“Not bad for people that can’t play golf anymore. We have one 58 and a 59. It’s unbelievable,” he quipped. “Like I was out there today, and I obviously started really well. I was 6-under through 8, I think, and I looked and I was like two or three shots back. I was like, ‘What’s going on?'”
“If Joaco goes out there and shoots 3- or 4-under and 3- or 4-under on the weekend, there’s nothing really to do,” he admitted. “It’s not that easy to shoot 8-, 9- or 10-under par on this course.”
It certainly isn’t easy, but nobody told Niemann.
