JEDDAH: Joaquin Niemann says he has been a ‘slightly better’ golfer over the past few months. That seemingly small uptick in form is knocking the competition out of the park.
The red-hot Chilean, Captain of Torque GC, surged to a two-shot lead after the second round of the individual championship of LIV Golf Jeddah at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on Saturday, adding a bogey-free 64 to his opening 63 to finish with a 13-under-par score of 127. He was being chased by South Africa’s former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (66) at 11 under.
2010 Open Champion and Stingers Captain Louis Oosthuizen (66), another player in terrific form, was tied third at 10 under par alongside American Jason Kokrak, whose 62 was the lowest round of the day.
World No.3 Jon Rahm (69), the overnight leader and the highest-ranked player in the field, was among those tied for fourth place at 9 under.
American Anthony Kim, the most talked-about player in the field, making his comeback in professional golf after 12 years away, matched his first-round score of 76, finishing with 11 straight pars after going 6 over through the first seven holes.
Niemann began the round with seven straights pars before finishing with six birdies over the last 11 holes. It was another brilliant show from the 25-year-old from Santiago, who won the Australian Open in December and LIV Golf Mayakoba in February, finished fourth in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and came third last week in the International Series Oman.
Asked what has changed in his game to trigger such a run of form, Niemann replied: “Me.”
He continued: “I think it was a little bit of everything. When I look back to last season, I wasn’t playing my best golf. Off the tee, iron shots, putting, my routines on the golf course, how I thought and how I prepared for tournaments…I think I am bit better in all of those.
“Obviously, I made a few changes in my swing and it’s been feeling a little bit better now. I’ve been able to hit all the trajectories I want to and that has given me the confidence to be aggressive off the tee. I am hitting that high draw (slight right-to-left flight) more often and it has helped me gain at least 20 yards on my usual low-cut shot that I had before.
Schwartzel, the 2012 Masters champion, had a nightmarish final round at the previous LIV event in Las Vegas, when he shot 10 over par in cold conditions and slipped to last in the field.
“I have the memory of a goldfish. I have no recollection of what happened in Vegas,” Schwartzel said when asked about the turnaround in his form. “Myself, Branden (Grace) and Dean (Burmester) all live (near each other) in the Palm Beach area, so we play a lot of golf together, and all of us have been playing pretty good golf. We didn’t do very good in Vegas. The weather was too cold for us. It’s a lot different here and we’re in much better spirits.”
Thanks to Schwartzel, Oosthuizen and Grace (65), the all-South African Stingers grabbed a seven-shot lead in the Team Championship with a 29-under-par total. The Rahm-led Legions XIII and Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC were tied for second at 22 under.
