SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — When the dust settles on this windy, sand-swept U.S Open at Shinnecock Hills, Joaquin Niemann’s week will be remembered for two numbers: 66 and 11.
The 66 is what the LIV star shot on a baked-out setup in the final round Sunday. No one else matched it — not Wyndham, not Sam Burns, not Scottie — and the five-birdie-one-bogey performance propelled Niemann into a tie for 7th. That’s not only his best finish in six career U.S. Open starts but his finish in a major, period, in 28 tries.
“We’re getting closer and closer,” Niemann said afterward. “That’s the only direction I’ve seen since I started playing golf, that I always get closer to my goals and my dreams. I know it’s one step forward to that.”
Niemann’s one-over week coulda-shoulda been two shots better, which brings us to that other number, 11. That’s the score Niemann made on the par-4 6th in the opening round, thanks in part to consecutive tee shots he pumped out of bounds. In terms of actual strokes taken, though, Niemann did two better.
His 9 — carded late Thursday, after a two-hour fog delay had backed up starting times — became an 11 on Friday morning, when USGA officials announced that Niemann had thrown a club at the 6th in the gloaming of Thursday evening, earning himself the first-ever penalty (two strokes!) under the governing bodies’ new Code of Conduct. Complicating matters was that at that late hour, cameras had stopped rolling, meaning there was no video evidence of the incident; the USGA could lean only on eyewitness accounts.
Niemann admitted to being frustrated and chucking his sand wedge. He agreed he had misbehaved. He said he would learn from his petulance. But he also said he felt “a little bit extra penalized.” He had said those things on Friday, after his second round.
On Sunday, after his fourth round, Niemann said more.
Asked whether he felt like the USGA was making an example of him, Niemann said, “To be honest, yes. I was not trying to offend anyone. I think it was more something kind of like against me.”
A vendetta? Hardly. More like, rules are rules, even if there is unquestionably a gray area in this newly minted behavior code. In the second round, Jon Rahm, after a wayward drive on 19, kicked his driver down the tee box like a can down the road. Worthy of a two-shot wrist slap? Not according to the USGA’s decision-makers. A club kick apparently is not as offensive as a club throw.
Neimann said his blocked tee shots, in that moment in the still of the evening, simply were too much for his psyche to bear. “Knowing that the best score I could do was an 8, it kind of frustrated me a lot. I’m not happy doing that. I’m not proud about throwing a golf club. I get I deserve it in a way; I don’t know. But there’s nothing I can do. I feel like I learned from it.”
He bounced back from it, too. After learning of his penalty, Niemann played the next 54 holes in seven under. Wyndham Clark won the championship at four under.
“We’re working towards our goal,” Niemann said. “That is obviously winning out here.”
