For the fourth time in 2025, Joaquín Niemann is the individual winner of a LIV Golf event. The 26-year-old Chilean stormed past Graeme McDowell and Anirban Lahiri on Sunday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, firing a final-round 63 to reach 15 under for the tournament and obtain a one-shot win.
Niemann has now won half of the LIV Golf events played this season with just six remaining on the schedule. It’s an incredible display of dominance over that tour, but with each win, the pressure grows on him to carry that torch into the major championships.
While his prodigious talents have been on full display month to month, the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow was the first time he cracked the top 10 at a major across 24 such starts.
That kind of run in majors would normally disqualify a player from comparison to the world’s best, but Niemann has been so dominant in LIV Golf (six wins since the start of 2024), and his statistical profile has been so strong, that folks can’t help but wonder what’s getting lost in translation.
Niemann’s teammates on Torque GC have posited that he presses too hard in the majors trying to live up to the hype. In his post-round TV interview, Niemann was asked whether he has learned to be more patient in the majors. Despite his improved play at the PGA Championship, he offered a candid response about still not feeling particularly close to a major breakthrough.
“Well, it’s always a good plan to be patient everywhere, but I mean, it’s hard to tell. I feel like I’m still pretty far away from winning one,” Niemann said. “I’m just happy to be playing in the U.S. Open. It’s going to be a great course, pretty tough conditions, so looking forward to that challenge and just have a fun week.”
That T8 finish at Quail Hollow was of the backdoor variety; Niemann jumped 23 spots on Sunday with a terrific 68 to earn that top 10. That’s not to say it wasn’t earned, but as he said, there’s a difference between that kind of top 10 and truly being in contention for a win — just ask Rory McIlroy, long the king of the backdoor top 10s before finally breaking his decade-long major drought at the Masters.
Niemann appears a bit uncomfortable with being placed in conversations with McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and others at the top of the game, and he wasn’t about to add fuel to the fire when it comes to the pressure being put on him this week. He probably looks at his own resume and hopes others can pump the brakes on trying to force him into that tier until he settles in as a major competitor.
Still, Niemann is listed seventh on the odds board for the U.S. Open at 30-1, per Caesars Sportsbook. The only names above his — and some immediately below — have all won major championships.
That’s why Niemann’s name sticks out and continues to be mentioned: LIV Golf needs him to show that he’s on that level.
If the player dominating that league isn’t particularly competitive when he plays against the best the PGA Tour has to offer, it creates more questions about the level of competition on LIV Golf. It’s the (perhaps unfair) truth of golf in this current age as we only get four opportunities each year to see the best of the best all on the same course. That’s a small sample size, but it’s the only way we can realistically judge these players head-to-head.
Niemann’s struggles relative to his LIV Golf success would be less of a story if others were stepping up. Only DeChambeau — already holding a pedigree as a major champion before making the jump — has brought a major to that tour. DeChambeau has been neck and neck with Scheffler as the most consistent major players in the world over the last two years, but no one else on LIV Golf has truly come close to winning one.
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson have been non-factors in majors. Jon Rahm finally got in the mix at the PGA Championship before a disastrous final three holes, but that was the first time he’d really been in contention since leaving the PGA Tour.
And so, with the U.S. Open at Oakmont being played this week, arguably the world’s toughest test of golfing skill will apply the pressure on Niemann as he attempts to carry the LIV Golf torch alongside DeChambeau and Rahm.
Majors have always been how the best in the world are judged, and the game is in the midst of an unbelievable run of major champions. If Niemann is going to place himself among those names, he must add one of the four biggest trophies to his mantle.
The challenge is the competition at the top of the golf world has never been better. Just about everyone who has lifted a major trophy over the past eight years has been a top-10 caliber player in the world with most of the truly elite winning multiple times. As such, it’s a fair hypothesis that Niemann has been pressing too much in the majors, desperately trying to affirm his place at that level.
Heading into the U.S. Open, he’s trying to take a different perspective of having fun and embracing the challenge of Oakmont. That’s much easier said than done when one is staring down 5-inch thick rough and some of the firmest and fastest greens in the world. However, if he can breakthrough in Pennsylvania, he will do more than just confirm himself as a top player in this generation; he’ll go down as one of the rare men to conquer golf’s ultimate test.