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Joaquin Niemann has a five-shot lead after two rounds at LIV Golf New York. He appears in total command of all facets of his game and is the only player in the field yet to make a bogey. It’s very reminiscent of 2025 when he won a record five LIV Golf tournaments.
But the Torque GC captain, seeking his second win in his last four league starts, isn’t interested in comparing his current form to last year. He doesn’t want to get stuck trying to simply duplicate the past.
“I feel like I’m never going to be the same as I was in 2025,” he said. “I feel like you’re always changing. You’re always evolving and you’re always a different person. 2025, I played amazing golf. I had five wins on LIV. Probably not the best results in major. But I feel I’m a better player now. I feel like I have matured a lot more and whenever time goes on, there’s always something to learn.”
The 27-year-old Niemann, the league’s youngest captain, followed his opening 7-under 64 with a bogey-free 65 on Friday, leaving him at 13 under entering the weekend at Trump National Bedminster. Fueled by Niemann, Torque also has a five-shot lead on the team leaderboard.
Niemann’s closest pursuer is the oldest captain in the field, 53-year-old Lee Westwood of England. The Majesticks co-captain is at 8 under after matching Niemann’s 65. Another stroke back is 47-year-old Fireballs GC Captain Sergio Garcia of Spain, who also shot 65.
Both of those European legends realize that catching Niemann will be a difficult task – especially if the Chilean star keeps starting his rounds so strongly. In each of the first two days at Bedminster, he’s shot 5-under 30 on the front nine.
“Joaco is obviously a world-class player. For me, he’s top 20 in the world,” Westwood said. “When he’s on his game, he can run away with a tournament. But everybody is human, and everybody makes mistakes, and everybody feels pressure. So, we’ll just see what happens, really. I’ll just try and control what I can control.”
Added Garcia: “If Joaco keeps shooting 5- or 6-under every day, it’s going to be very difficult to catch him; it’s as simple as that. When Joaco gets going the right way … it feels like he can birdie pretty much every hole.”
Garcia faces the same 36-hole deficit as he did in the 2024 season opener at Mayakoba when he was six shots behind after Niemann opened with a 59 at the 54-hole tournament. Garcia managed to force a playoff that Niemann eventually won in the fading light in Mexico.
“It would be nice hopefully on Sunday to have a playoff with him again,” Garcia said.
That win was the first of Niemann’s LIV Golf record eight individual titles. Two of those victories came when Niemann led after the first round in 54-hole tournaments. When Niemann won his first 72-hole LIV Golf title in May in Korea, he was three strokes off the lead with 36 to play before reeling in Talor Gooch and beating the OKGC captain in a playoff.
“Obviously I’ve been in this situation before, but like I say, I feel like every situation is different to the other ones,” Niemann said. “There’s just experience that you can learn from. I’m just excited to go out there for the weekend and see what I can learn. I feel like there’s so much golf to play. There are so many shots to hit. I’m just excited to have the opportunity to go and see my shots, try to deliver the best I can, and go from there.”
TOP OF THE LEADERBOARDS
Individual Top 10
1 (-13) – Joaquin Niemann, Torque (64-65)
2 (-8) – Lee Westwood, Majesticks (69-65)
3 (-7) – Sergio Garcia, Fireballs (70-65)
T4 (-6) – Tom McKibbin, Legion XIII (70-66); Harold Varner, OKGC (69-67)
T6 (-5) – Richard Bland, Cleeks (73-64); Paul Casey, Crushers (70-67); Scott Vincent, HyFlyers (69-68); Lucas Herbert, Ripper (66-71)
T10 (-4) – Thomas Pieters, 4Aces (68-70); Ian Poulter, Majesticks (66- 72)
Team Top 3
1 (-9) – Torque GC (Niemann 64-65, Ancer 71-72, Ortiz 71-71, Munoz 74-71; Rd. 2 score: -5)
2 (-4) – HyFlyers GC (Steele 68-74, Vincent 69-68, La Sasso 72-69, Tringale 74-70 ; Rd. 2 score: -3)
3 (-2) – Ripper GC (Herbert 66-71, Leishman 71-69, Smyth 71-71, Smith 75-72 ; Rd. 2 score: -1)
Click here for full leaderboard
ROUND 2 NOTES
WESTWOOD AND BEDMINSTER: When LIV Golf first visited Trump National Bedminster during the inaugural season of 2022, Lee Westwood shot 4 under to tie for sixth. The following year did not go as well, as Westwood finished last in the 48-player field at 20 over.
Asked on Friday how he felt upon seeing Bedminster back in the course rotation for this year, Westwood replied: “I really had mixed emotions about it, I suppose. But I don’t really look at it like that. I take the course on its merits, and this is an excellent golf course. This should suit the best players, the people that hit the most fairways and the most greens and make the fewest mistakes and roll in a few putts. I think it’s a very fair, difficult golf course.”
The Majesticks co-captain is finding Bedminster to his liking this week as he chases his 45th professional title. He leads the field in Strokes Gained Putting, citing the benefits of having his own putting studio at home. But even if Westwood does win for the first time on any tour since 2020, he doesn’t think it will change the perception of his career.
“It’s something I’d like to do, obviously,” he said. “But it won’t define my career on LIV, really, regardless of what happens in the future. I’m kind of at the age now where I just tee it up and try and have a fun, enjoyable week, and if I play well, I play well, right? That’s the way everybody should play the game. You prepare hard and try and prepare thoroughly for each tournament and then you just kind of roll the dice. If they turn up the way you want them to, you have a chance.”
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: Two-time defending LIV Golf Individual Champion Jon Rahm is 36 holes away from clinching his third consecutive season-long title.
The Legion XIII captain is tied for 27th at 1 over after shooting an even-par 71 on Friday. That leaves him 14 strokes behind tournament leader Joaquin Niemann but seven strokes ahead of the only player who can catch him in the points race, Bryson DeChambeau.
The Crushers GC captain is in 50th place at 8 over. That leaves him with a projected points total of 722.50, while Rahm is projected to finish at 947.54 points. DeChambeau must climb inside the 200-point barrier after this weekend at Bedminster to remain mathematically alive to catch Rahm in the regular-season finale at Indianapolis.
Jon Rahm during Round 1 of LIV Golf New York at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. (Photo by Charles Laberge/LIV Golf)
LOW ROUND FOR BLAND: Richard Bland, the oldest player in the field at age 53, produced the lowest round on Friday, a bogey-free 7-under 64 that included birdies on five par 4s. It matches the Cleeks GC veteran’s lowest round, relative to par, this season.
“Drove the ball pretty well, hit some good irons,” said Bland, who’ll enter the weekend tied for sixth. “The chances I gave myself, I pretty much took, and also up-and-downed it a couple times when I needed to the last couple of holes.”
Bland is not the only 50-something who’s thriving this week, despite the heat and the mammoth 7,600-yard course. Westwood – just two months younger than Bland – is in solo second. His fellow Majesticks co-captain Ian Poulter, age 50, is tied for 10th after following his opening 66 with a 1-over 72.
“Obviously for our shorter hitters, hitting the fairways is crucial because if you get it in the rough, par is going to be a very good score,” Bland said. “So, I have to hit a lot of fairways. If you ‘re going to compete at this level, you need to have all your game with you too.”
HYFLYERS ON PACE FOR BEST RESULT: HyFlyers GC are in solo second on the team leaderboard at 4 under, five shots behind Torque GC. If they can maintain that position or catch Torque for the title, it would be the HyFlyers’ best-ever team result. The team has three third-place podium finishes in its history.
On Friday, Scott Vincent (68), Michael La Sasso (69) and Cameron Tringale (70) combined to shoot 6 under to offset Brendan Steele’s 74. Steele had set the pace in the opening round with a 68.
HERBERT’S CRIPPLING DOUBLE: Red-hot Lucas Herbert of Ripper GC was hanging close to leader Joaquin Niemann for the first part of his round, producing birdies in three of his first five holes. But then he suffered his first bogey in 49 holes after his par putt lipped out at the 7th hole.
Four holes later, he suffered a double bogey at the par-4 11th despite his approach shot hitting the green just 3 feet from the pin. The ball spun back and rolled off the green into the first cut of rough. He then twice failed to land his chip shot on the green at the par-4 11th. His third with a 6-iron and fourth shot with a wedge both rolled back down the slope near where he played the shots. He finally landed on the green with his third attempt before making the putt for six.
Herbert, winner of two of the last four LIV Golf tournaments, suffered another bogey at the 14th to shoot even-par 71, leaving him at 5 under entering the weekend and a tie for sixth.
This piece is courtesy of Mike McAllister in partnership with LIV Golf.
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