These days, talk of Joaquin Niemann can overshadow the man himself.
Let’s get more specific: It’s pretty obvious to anyone who watches professional golf that Niemann is one of the most talented players in the world. But exactly how high he is on that list is up for debate. Phil Mickelson poured some kerosene on the fire when he added “Top 5? Try #1” of discourse earlier this year. Niemann won five times at LIV this season, which is certainly a testament to his ability. But he also finished T29-T8-MC-MC in majors, another disappointing campaign for a player who knows this is where much of his career will be defined.
Anyway, that’s the conversation AROUND to him. What about Niemann himself? He is a genuine and nice person. He is on the verge of his 27th birthday. He is completing his eighth year as a professional. He is intense in tournament play, but quick to laugh when he leaves. He still has the boyish energy of the teenage sensation who made it on Tour – but he’s also meditative, spending more time journaling. And he wouldn’t be able to change that unique swing—the weed-snapping, rock-scraping, rolling swing—even if he wanted to. (He doesn’t.) And you can ask him about anything but his favorite golf club. They are listening, after all…
Here’s what I learned from Niemann in half an hour on the range.
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1. You may not say his name very correctly.
I bet you have it full. But “Joaquin” is often shortened to “Joaco,” which I tend to say like a very American “Wah-ko,” but he pronounces it with a slightly more subtle “Hwa-go.”
“Americans have a tough accent for saying ‘NO’ together,” he says charitably.
2. He had a specific swing of 40 yards – but no more.
Niemann begins his warm-up with a 60-degree wedge, as do many of his peers. But I was interested to hear him say that over the years he’s actually become less mechanical with his middle shots. Once he gets to his warm-up point, he starts thinking about yards—60 or 70 yards, let’s say—he uses his head. AND his eyes.
“I feel like I’m better at hitting the dial when I see something,” he says. “Let’s say I just want to land it on the green. I feel like I’ll have a better idea of where to put it than just a number, so I go with my gut.”
That’s a bit of a change from his younger self, Niemann says.
“I used to be more — I have a 40-yard swing, I have a 50-yard swing, I have a 60-yard swing. But now it’s more free and I play with my vision.”
3. He thinks about throwing the ball at his target.
This is related to #2, but it’s interesting enough to share.
“For me, if it’s like, ‘hey Joaco, throw a ball 50 meters (target), it’s not like I’m going to calculate how far I’m going to throw it. I’m just going to go.’
(Throws the ball up.)
4. He gets stuck on the 8-iron.
Niemann says he usually goes through all his wedges — 60, 56, 52, then hitting the wedge — and then goes through his irons (sometimes 9, 7, 5 but usually 8, 6, 4) doing everything he can to “make sure they don’t get neglected.” But then he gets stuck.
“I mean, growing up I hit a lot of 8-irons. Like, all day long. And my 8-iron just fell apart,” he says.
This resonated with me because I, too, was stuck hitting millions of 8-irons during a wide range session. There is something attractive about the first club that is not a wedge.
5. As a child, he used his sticks as weeds.
Niemann’s father — a 20-handicap college basketball player in Chile — introduced him to golf. But it was his mother whose backyard bribery may have taken him to the next level.
“I lived in a house where we had a big yard, like, outside of town. And my brother would probably play video games or play soccer or whatever, and I’d work with a club.”
Niemann would throw balls around his yard for hours and then do some yard work as well.
“I remember my mom paying me, I don’t know, five bucks to break (weeds),” Niemann says. “Sometimes I think that’s why I dig in the ground so much and I’m like ‘f—.’
6. He is a great thinker.
Niemann plays a few video games, he says, after his physical therapy-cold-soaking-sauna practice. But he spends more time than you’d think on more intellectual pursuits.
“A little bit of reading, all those things to help me develop better; I feel like I’m getting to know myself better and I need to progress in reading, you know, journaling, all those things. I can assess myself, how I’m doing in my life, in golf, my relationships, all of that,” Niemann says. “I feel like I’m a big thinker, I like to be quiet, you know, and just think about what’s going on outside.”
7. Trajectory, he says, is everything.
“I feel more than having a number, I rely more on trajectory,” Niemann says, showing his creativity in the way he thinks through shots. “If the green’s going to drop, I can go down the 10th, hit something low, it’ll skip and spin. Or if the pin is on the front, you’ve got to hit something really high. I go more with windows than actual numbers, you know?”
8. He favors a small cut.
Niemann likes to hit his cuffs fairly straight — but if the ball is going to move, he wants it to fall slightly left to right.
“Every time I ‘miss’ a shot, I want it to start left, but cut,” he says. “That’s my feeling. If I hit it right, then the cut is not good. If I swipe left and it draws, it’s terrible. So I know when the ball starts a little left and it’s resting that everything’s going to be OK.”
To hit the cut, Niemann lies a few feet to the left of the target and then, as he says, “spin as much as I can.” It works quite well for him.
9. He says his golf clubs are listening.
I ask Niemann if he has a favorite club. He answers seriously.
I can’t tell you. They are here and they listen,” he says. “They get jealous. They’re all in the bag because I like them all.”
10. He carries a hybrid 5.
After all, it says “5” on it. But Niemann insists it’s a “4” or at least flying “4 distance.”
When you were a kid, you thought about having a 2-iron,” he says. “I had to give up my childhood dream. I only (pass) the 5-iron now.”
In fairness to Niemann, he does have a 3-iron that he uses sometimes. But if you need any further permission to grab a high metal, just know that he has a 7-wood in his arsenal. He has a 4-slash-5 hybrid.
And they are listening.
You can watch it in full below here.
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