These days, the conversation around Joaquin Niemann can obscure the man himself.
Let’s get more specific: It’s pretty clear to anybody who watches much professional golf that Niemann is one of the more talented players in the world. But exactly how high he belongs on that list is where the debate begins. Phil Mickelson poured on some kerosene on the fire when he added “Top 5? Try #1” to the discourse earlier this year. Niemann won five times on LIV this season, which is certainly evidence of his ability. But he also finished T29-T8-MC-MC in the majors, another disappointing campaign for a player who knows that’s where much of his career will be defined.
Anyway, that’s the conversation around him. As for Niemann himself? He’s a real and delightful person. He’s on the verge of his 27th birthday. He’s wrapping his eighth year as a pro. He’s intense in tournament play but quick to laugh when he steps away. He still has the boyish energy of the teenage sensation who made it on Tour — but he’s contemplative, too, spending more time journaling. And he wouldn’t be able to change that unique swing — the weed-chopping, stone-skipping, hip-whirling swing — even if he wanted to. (He doesn’t.) And you can ask him anything except his favorite golf club. They’re listening, after all…
Here’s what I learned from Niemann in a half-hour on the range.
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1. You might not be saying his name quite right.
I bet you’ve got the full thing down. But “Joaquin” often gets shortened to “Joaco,” which I tend to say as a very American “Wah-ko” but he enunciates with a slightly subtler “Hwa-go.”
“Americans have a tough accent to say ‘J-O’ together,” he says charitably.
2. He used to have a specific 40-yard swing — but not any more.
Niemann begins his warmup 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 gotten less mechanical with his in-between wedge shots. Once he gets to the point in his warmup that he starts thinking about yardages — 60 or 70 yards, say — he uses his head and his eyes.
“I feel like I’m better at hitting the number when I see something,” he says. “Let’s say I want to land it just on the green. I feel I’ll have a better knowledge of where to land that than just a number, so I go with my feeling.”
That’s a slight change from his younger self, Niemann says.
“I used to be more — I’ve got a 40-yard swing, I’ve got a 50-yard swing, I’ve got a 60-yard swing. But now it’s more free and I play with my vision.”
3. He thinks about throwing the ball to his target.
This is related to No. 2, but it’s interesting enough to separate out.
“For me if it’s like, ‘hey Joaco, throw a ball to the 50-yard [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 ball pin-high.]
4. He gets stuck on the 8-iron.
Niemann says he typically runs through all his wedges — 60, 56, 52, then pitching wedge — and then alternates on his way down through his irons (sometimes 9, 7, 5 but usually 8, 6, 4) doing what he can to “make sure they’re not getting neglected.” But then he gets stuck.
“I mean, growing up I used to hit a lot of 8-irons. Like, all day. And my 8-iron was destroyed,” he says.
This resonated with me because I, too, used to get stuck hitting millions of 8-irons during a through-the-bag range session. There’s something appealing about the first club that’s not a wedge.
5. As a kid, he used his clubs as weed-whackers.
Niemann’s father — a college basketball player in Chile and a 20-handicap — introduced him to golf. But it was his mother whose backyard bribery may have taken him next level.
“I used to live in a house where we had a big yard, like, outside the city. And my brother was probably playing video games or playing football or whatever, and I was working with a club.”
Niemann would pitch balls around his yard for hours at a time and then pitch in on some work in the garden, too.
“I remember my mom used to pay me, I dunno, five bucks to break [weeds],” Niemann says. “Sometimes I think that’s why I dig so much into the ground, and I’m like, ‘f—.’”
6. He’s a big thinker.
Niemann plays some video games, he says, after his practice-physical therapy-cold plunge-sauna routine. But he spends more time than you’d think on more intellectual pursuits, too.
“A little bit of reading, all that kind of stuff to kind of help me develop myself better; I feel like I’m getting to know myself better and I need to progress on reading, you know, journaling, all that kind of stuff. I can evaluate 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 like more than having a number, I lean more on the trajectory,” Niemann says, showing off his creativity in the way he thinks through shots. “If the green is going to release, I can land it 10 short, 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, y’know?”
8. He favors a little cut.
Niemann likes to hit his irons pretty straight — but if the ball is going to move he wants it falling slightly left to right.
“Every time I ‘miss’ a shot I want it starting left but cutting,” he says. “That’s my feel. If I hit it right then cutting is no good. If I hit it left and it’s drawing, terrible. So I know when the ball starts a little left and it’s cutting that everything is going to be okay.”
To hit the cut, Niemann aligns himself a few yards left of the target and then, as he says, “rotate as hard as I can.” It works pretty 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’re here and they listen,” he says. “They get jealous. They’re all in the bag because I like them all.”
10. He carries a 5 hybrid.
It says “5” on it, after all. But Niemann insists it’s a “4” or at least that it flies “4 distance.”
When you were a kid you were thinking about having a 2-iron,” he says. “I had to give away my childhood dream. I only [go through] 5-iron now.”
In fairness to Niemann, he does have a 3-iron he uses sometimes. But if you needed any further permission to grab a lofted metal, just know he has a 7-wood in his arsenal. He has a 4-slash-5 hybrid.
