PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – After a jittery front nine on Sunday, Joaquin Niemann took care of any of the suspense as to who might win the Genesis Invitational when he chipped in from 45 feet off the green at the par-5 11th hole for eagle.
Niemann, 23, handled the bright lights of Los Angeles and overcame a sluggish start to coast to the finish line, closing in even-par 71 at Riviera Country Club and a two-stroke victory over Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young. Niemann’s ball-striking clinic made him the first wire-to-wire winner of the Genesis since Hall of Famer Charlie Sifford in 1969 and the youngest tournament champion.
“Any week that he’s on is going to be like this week,” said Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz, who shared a house with the champion and kidded him that he was playing a different golf course this week.
“This course is made for him,” said Mito Pereira, a fellow Chilean Tour pro. “He’s really strong off the tee and with the irons and you have to do that in this place.”
Niemann set a torrid pace with a pair of 63s in the first two rounds and added to his lead with a 3-under 68 on Saturday to build a three-stroke lead over Young, a 24-year-old rookie from Wake Forest University, heading into the final round in Tinseltown.
“I’m having the time of my life,” Niemann said on Saturday.
That included with the putter. Niemann, who entered the week ranked No. 154 in Strokes Gained: Putting for the season, was enjoying Riviera’s poa greens enough to rank third through three rounds. He was 21-under par for his first 46 holes. But on Sunday, his sense of line and speed with the short stick abandoned him early. He missed a 6-foot birdie putt at No. 6 and one hole later left a 60-foot birdie putt 17 feet short and made bogey. His lead was trimmed to one.
That’s when Niemann’s ballstriking came to the rescue. He stuck a lob wedge to 7 feet at the eighth hole and sank the putt and Young overcooked his approach and made bogey. In the blink of an eye, his cushion was back to three and grew to as many as five when Niemann chipped in for the eagle at 11. Niemann had one more shaky passage to endure as he made back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 14 and 15. On the day, he ranked last of the 75 golfers to play the weekend, but he did enough to secure his second PGA Tour title with a 72-hole total of 19-under 265, one shy of the tournament scoring record held by Lanny Wadkins in 1985, which managed to remain intact.
Young closed in 1-under 70 to record his second runner-up finish in just 12 Tour starts, tying with Morikawa who holed a pitch for eagle at No. 10 en route to shooting 65.
When he won the 2019 A Military Tribute at Greenbrier by six strokes, Niemann became the first Chilean Tour winner and first under-21 international Tour winner since Rory McIlroy and Seve Ballesteros. Asked if it felt like a long time since he’s tasted victory, he nodded and said, “Yeah, it feels like forever, actually.”
A dominating performance such as the show Niemann put on this week suggests his talent is just beginning to bud.
“He’s got a ton of game,” said Sergio Garcia. “He can do it all. He’s still very young, but he’s going to do great things.”
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