[PHOTO: Andrew Redington]
Joaquin Niemann has aired his latest grievance, this time about the International Presidents Cup team roster. Mainly, his absence from it, among other LIV players.
In a conference call with reporters ahead of LIV Golf Chicago, the 25-year-old Chilean, who is the reigning Australian Open champion and has won twice on the LIV Tour in 2024, expressed his disappointment with being snubbed from captain Mike Weir’s International squad.
“It sucks,” Niemann said. “I would love to be on that team. It’s supposed to be the best golfers around the world and they’re not doing that right now.”
In 2019, Niemann played in his first Presidents Cup for the International side at Royal Melbourne, going 0-3-1 as a rookie. Still, it was an invaluable experience for a player who appeared poised to play on International Presidents Cup teams for the next decade, at least. Niemann would have almost certainly made the International team in 2021, but the event was pushed back to 2022 due to the COVID pandemic. By the time it was played, Niemann had already bolted for LIV, making him ineligible (the PGA Tour owns the Presidents Cup).
This past March, Weir confirmed that LIV golfers will still not eligible, leaving the likes of Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen – all LIV golfers who played on the 2019 International team – on the outside looking in again.
Despite the snub, Niemann says he’ll still be cheering for the Internationals.
“I do believe we (the Internationals) have a strong team, but it could be an even stronger team,” he said. “I’d love to see the Americans lose.”
Niemann has been unafraid to voice his opinions on the state of golf since he left for the LIV league. After his first LIV win in Mexico last February, his first quote in his post-victory interview was “but I’m not in the majors”. Two weeks later, Augusta National granted him a rare special invitation to play in the 2024 Masters. Niemann wound up competing in all but one of the majors in 2024 – the US Open.
Last month, despite being in the Olympic Men’s Golf Competition field, Niemann also said that the Olympic qualifying process was not “fair”, and that the best players in the world were not in Paris.
Niemann is in search of his third LIV victory at LIV Golf Chicago, which begins this Friday at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
