Joaquin Niemann travelled Down Under in 2023 looking for major starts. Now he’s back, and wants to reconnect with his love of Melbourne.

The irony was not lost on ISPS HANDA Australian Open champion Joaquin Niemann, nor his brother, Lukas. In June, Niemann, the Chilean golf star who in 2022 left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, was playing in a 36-hole final qualifier for the US Open. The last-chance event was held at The Bears Club, just minutes from his US home in Jupiter, Florida. Niemann missed a playoff for the fifth and final spot… by one shot.

“I joked to my brother that I qualified for The Open by going all the way to Australia on a 16-hour flight from Chile and there were 156 players and I won,” Niemann told Australian Golf Digest. “Then I go and play five minutes away from my house in sectional qualifying for the US Open and I didn’t make it.”

Niemann saw the humour in the irony, but took it on the chin as a consequence of his move to LIV in 2022. He left the PGA Tour in late August that year as part of a six-strong group of signings that included Cam Smith, Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, Harold Varner III and Cameron Tringale. Niemann was ranked world No.19 and had two career PGA Tour victories when he left, including at Riviera Country Club. He had played on the International team at the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. But playing on LIV, which does not award Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points for its 54-hole, no-cut events, meant he now plays only a handful of events that accumulate points. The OWGR is used by the four majors as the main criteria for entry.

Niemann’s world ranking plummeted after leaving the PGA Tour. By the time he arrived in Brisbane for the 2023 Australian PGA Championship, he was 82nd. But he certainly has no regrets about his 11,000-kilometre flight to Australia. At the end of 2023, he wasn’t eligible for any of the four majors in 2024 and, as he says, Australia is also a fantastic place to visit and compete.

“My main goal [in coming to Australia] was trying to get world ranking points to make it into the top 50 for the end of the year to get into all the majors,” Niemann recalls. Traditionally, the world’s top 50 on December 31 each year are invited by Augusta National to the Masters. Staying inside that number through July triggers access to the PGA, US Open and Open Championship. “I was playing great golf at the end of [2023] and I wanted to keep it going a little bit to get that momentum. Mainly, I was in Australia because of the majors and, other than that, I enjoyed my time in Australia. Golf [in Australia] is a little bit different than in other countries and crowds are great.”

Niemann finished fifth at Royal Queensland, which is also a DP World Tour co-sanctioned event. The next week, Niemann triumphed in a sudden-death playoff when he defeated Rikuya Hoshino at The Australian Golf Club. He joined a long list of Stonehaven Cup winners that, among others, includes Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman and Tom Watson.

Like the Australian PGA, the world-ranking bump wasn’t fantastic, and it wasn’t enough to re-enter the top 50 by December 31. But the Australian Open is among a group of tournaments called the Open Qualifying Series. In each, spots are given to the next Open Championship to a select number of high finishers not already exempt. “I knew the Australian Open was giving spots away for The Open, so that convinced me to go,” Niemann says. “The Australian Open… you see the trophy and the names and you realise there’s a lot of history in there. It would be nice if they have more spots for more majors.”

Niemann’s Stonehaven Cup victory was a start. What he didn’t realise was the organisers of the other majors were paying attention. In February, the Masters Tournament committee extended a special invitation to Niemann for the April major. Chairman Fred Ridley and his Augusta National colleagues were impressed at Niemann’s globetrotting efforts to gain entry to the majors rather than complain about LIV’s lack of access. That’s because he also travelled to the Middle East for the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, where he was T-4, and the Asian Tour’s International Series Oman, where he was third. Add the LIV events Niemann played in the first three months of 2024, including Mexico, Las Vegas, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, and he travelled more than 70,000 kilometres in the 14 weeks between the Australian Open in late November and early March. It was then that the PGA of America followed the Masters and invited Niemann to the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Looking back, Niemann is grateful for the recognition. “It felt great having the back-up from the majors,” Niemann says, recording finishes of T-22 at Augusta and T-39 at Valhalla. “I knew if I played well, I would find a way to get in [somehow]. For a moment, I thought I was not getting into the Masters. I never thought they were going to invite me. It was special. I had a good feeling that I was going to be playing in all of them; it ended up working out pretty well going to Australia.”

RETURN DOWN UNDER

A year later, Niemann finds himself in the same boat. He’s not in any of golf’s four biggest events for 2025 as he prepares to defend his Australian Open title. Regardless, he’s still champing at the bit to return to Australian shores and defend one of the oldest trophies in golf – on the Melbourne Sandbelt, no less. And there is still that carrot dangling of three spots in the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Niemann is especially excited to ending a five-year absence from the Melbourne Sandbelt when he tees up at Australian Open co-hosts Kingston Heath and The Victoria Golf Club from November 28 to December 1. It will be Niemann’s third trip to Australia in 12 months, including the past summer of golf and LIV Golf Adelaide at The Grange in April.

“Australia, the whole country is nice. I enjoyed it last year in Brisbane and Sydney; they were two beautiful places,” he says. “In Australia you’re used to playing good golf courses and I think this year will be the same. We’re going to Victoria and Kingston Heath. That’s not far from where [I] played the [2019] Presidents Cup [at Royal Melbourne].

“At the Australian Open, you see more people than many tournaments that you play around the world. And the golf courses… In 2019, Royal Melbourne was one of my favourite courses. It was super firm, fast. You can play so many different shots off the tee and into the green.”

One thing is certain: Niemann dreams of etching his name alongside multiple winners of the Stonehaven Cup, like Player (seven), Nicklaus (six), Norman (five) and Jordan Spieth (two).

“I feel like it should be ranked higher,” Niemann says of the Australian Open. “It’s a great tournament.”