Joaquin Niemann Misses Masters After Failing to Qualify

Joaquin Niemann said missing the Masters gave him a different view of the tournament, and he called watching it from home "kind of cool actually to see it in a different perspective." He made the remarks while playing the PGA Championship, where he opened with a one-under round.

"It's the first major for me of the year," Niemann said. He did not play at the Masters because he failed to qualify, turning this week into his first major start of the season.

Niemann at Aronimink

The Chilean joined LIV Golf in 2022 and has since collected seven individual title wins, but he still has not won a major trophy. That gap sits beside the LIV success. At the PGA Championship, he said, "I mean, I always try to do my best" and "I always try to improve."

He also described the pressure of trying to keep pace with the game itself. "I think I was saying to Pete Cowen yesterday, the day I figure out this game, I'm going to retire," he said. "I don't think I'm ever going to figure it out. The only way I can do is just come here, show up the best possible way I can prepare to it and just play golf."

Jon Rahm and the major gap

Niemann pointed to Jon Rahm as a standard he has watched closely over the past two years. "I mean, just being around him, I think, is always nice," he said. "He won a few already. He won Masters and U.S. Open. Obviously he's been playing unbelievable golf on LIV."

"I've had the pleasure to go head-to-head with him the past two years," Niemann said. "It's been great." He added, "I've learned a lot from him," and called Rahm "a great player, great attitude."

The contrast is plain: Rahm has already won the Masters and the U.S. Open, while Niemann is still waiting for a major breakthrough. His one-under start at Aronimink gave him a solid opening, but the larger storyline this week is that the Masters is still a tournament he had to watch from afar after missing qualification.