THE MODERATOR: Please welcome Torque GC captain, Joaquín Niemann, to the media center. Joaco, you entered this week as the points leader in the season-long individual championship race. You've already won three times this season. Going back, you've won five times in the last 20 LIV Golf events. 25 percent success rate is pretty good, I think.
What are your thoughts heading into the second half of this season, and what do you need to do to maintain your form the rest of the way.
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, this is a really special situation for me. It's kind of similar from last year. I was in a similar situation, leading the points. I know I have a challenge in front of me. I know there's really good players behind me trying to chase me. You've got Bryson, you've got Jon, Sergio. Last year I had a good fight with Jon the last half of the season, and now Bryson is underway playing great golf, as well.
I take it as a great challenge. I know I got to play great and amazing golf to have a chance to win the league, which is the goal. It feels good to be here right now. The way I've been playing, winning three times this year is pretty cool, too, so hopefully I can keep that percentage going the way it is.
Q. Also, you earned the first LIV Golf exemption into the U.S. Open and will compete next week in Oakmont. You posted your best-ever finish last month at the PGA Championship in a major, tied for eighth. Tell us about your mindset and confidence level going into next week's major.
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, obviously we're a week away from that. Yeah, I had a good finish at PGA. I didn't feel like I played my best game. I felt like there was a lot more at the time to play better. I knew I could have a way better result. But I think we can take the positives and go step by step. It's my first top 10 in a major, so that's a positive.
But yeah, I don't know. There's a good challenge ahead of me in Oakmont. I can't really tell you how I'm feeling, how I'm going to be feeling that week. I know it's going to be a really tough week. I know U.S. Opens are always prepping the course as hard as they can. They want us to win with over par, which talks about how hard they're going to set it up. I know it's going to be long rough. You've got to hit it long, straight.
It's going to be hard. I know it's going to be a good challenge. Looking forward for that, I guess.
Q. Your Torque team has back-to-back podium finishes, solidly in fifth place. What's the vibe been like in the team room going into the second half? Obviously you guys are still searching for that first win of the season.
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I know the four guys, the four of us, we all know that we've got a lot more to prove, a lot more to do. We can play a lot better.
We all know what we have to do. We all know we have a big chance to win the season. I think to get there, we've got to start from winning a week out here, and I feel like this is a week that that could happen. So we feel really confident. We feel really positive.
It could be any week, and knowing that it's already half the season, it kind of gives us a new era and a new mindset to accomplish that. Yeah, we feel good. We just want to win a tournament. We all have the same feelings. It's nice to share that with them.
Q. Joaco, have you been to Oakmont yet, and if so, what did you think?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: No, I haven't been there yet.
Q. With the greens typically really firm and fast, especially at Oakmont, and you having a ball flight, is there a way you're preparing differently to try to hold those greens dintly when they're going to play that fiery?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, obviously there's going to be a lot of challenges. Yeah, I do have a lower flight. It's something that I work a lot during the last probably two, three years trying to get a lot more extension on the impact, get the lie angle a little bit better so I can take off and launch the ball a little bit higher and more spin. It's something that I've developed through these two, three years with Ping. They've been helping me out with trajectories, as well, with launch, with Titleist having a better launch and more spin.
There's a lot of stuff I've improved. I have that trajectory now. The way I need to stop it quickly is having that distance control, and I think I'm pretty good at that, and I know where I can land the ball and where I can't. I think it's just more of a better strategy and know where to have the right numbers.
I feel like I'm good at that, like I said. It's still going to be a tough challenge. Like you say, greens are going to be flying, so I feel like it's not going to be a lot of five-footers, six-footers for birdie. I feel it's going to be a lot of where you position your golf ball to have an uphill putt maybe, which is going to be easier.
They want to win it over par, so at the end of the day it's not who makes more birdies, I feel like it's who makes less bogeys and less mistakes.
Q. In the last few majors this year and last year, have you learned to strategically play the golf course and learned to not make mistakes like you have to do in major championship golf?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I think I have learned. Most of the courses that we play on majors are hard. There's not many birdies going on. There's not many crazy low scores. Yeah, my game is kind of in a way pretty aggressive, and whenever I'm out of position I want to make the best out of it, and I will take risks and try to take advantage of a tough situation and play my odds.
But I learned to you've got to keep those high numbers away and be probably a little bit more conservative. At the end of the day in majors, you don't win it on the first day or the second day. I feel like the weekend gets pretty intense, and it's pretty, in a way, easy to make a run if you're not in the best position on the weekend and you can kind of chase the leader because of the high pressure the leader has.
I feel like majors are interesting in that way. There's a lot going on until the last hole, which is fun.
I like back at the PGA and I was like top 15 finishing on Sunday. I was trying to do the best out of me to get into that top 10, and I earned probably seven spots once I finished the round. So that tells you how hard it is to play good in a major on a Sunday.
Q. Is there anything that you can point to from your major experience before this year's PGA that held you back and prevented you from contending?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I feel like I just keep telling myself that -- I think I was one shot or two shots away from being second. Obviously it's not what I want. I want to win. But yeah, I feel like I just got to keep getting closer and closer, try to knock on the door.
I feel like all I have to do is keep my patience up there in majors because you don't win with low scores, and knowing that it's kind of hard, but you've just got to play the game. I know I've just got to put myself in a position where I have a chance on the back nine, and I know I can do the best out of that.
Q. Has the globetrotting LIV schedule presented challenges for you in trying to peak for those majors, and what do you think about this week's venue ahead of Oakmont?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I mean, looking at this week, it's pretty cool how we set it up. The guys, like you said, the schedule how it is, it feels like the guys on the PGA Tour probably play -- like you see Scottie, he played the PGA, the week before the PGA, two weeks after that. Obviously he's playing unbelievable. But he's played a lot of golf.
I feel like I had two weeks off, I'm playing an hour away from next week, which is pretty nice.
For me, being on LIV, I feel like it's helping me a lot to better perform in majors. I feel more fresh. Obviously there's a few weeks that we travel a little farther away, but I've been pretty smart and conscious of my recovery, how I'm trying to prepare and feel more fresh for a major week.
I feel like more than the game, it just takes a lot out of you mentally, and if you feel fresh in that way and my body feels good, I feel like it's going to be a better week, the way I'm feeling good, the way I'm hitting the ball. It's more than just hitting the ball good.
Q. You mentioned chasing your first major. Phil Mickelson is going to come in here in a little bit. He's got six of them. I wonder how you would assess his legacy as a player but also as a really important big kind of first name to come over to LIV and establish this place?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, that's a funny thing that you say. He's probably not happy having only six majors. But I feel like that's just how the human being is. You always want more.
I know that I don't have any majors yet. I know if I have one, I know I'm going to have another one and then another one, and that's the way it works. But yeah, for me, having somebody like Phil or Bryson or Brooks, DJ or Sergio, all these guys, they already won. They've already been in that situation.
Just competing against them, it just makes me in a way feel that I'm -- I know 100 percent in myself that I can do it, that I can accomplish that. I feel like there's probably some information that I can learn here and there from them. So whenever I have a chance, I try to learn.
I remember I played a practice round with Phil last year at the Masters, and at the end of the day every player and every person is so different from one to each other. I feel like Phil is really intense with the game, with his approach to the game and the way he sees the game. He wants to learn. He has a lot of information between his church book at the Masters. He was making me hit putts from all over the place, know this, remember this. I know he's that way and he works that way, and he thinks that he will get better that way.
I'm totally different; I'm a little bit more of a feel player. I don't have much information on shots, what's going on. I'm just taking the challenge at the moment. I'm just different.
In a way it's hard to kind of learn from different players. I feel like it's good for me to listen to their perspective because they all have different perspectives and kind of like learn from each other what can I have and then create my own judgment of the tournaments.
But it's fun. It's no different.
Q. Back in 2018, your first appearance at Augusta, you mentioned that one of your favorite things playing there was the positive impact it was going to have on junior golfers in Chile. Fast forward to today, there's more junior golfers in Chile. There's more playing opportunities in Chile than there's ever been before. What does that impact mean to you? Is that still one of your big motivations going forward?
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, for sure. It's something that I think about it, knowing how can I grow the game in Chile, and I feel like, like I was saying before in Spanish but you guys didn't understand, I feel like they have good players in Chile. They have Mito, they have me, they have Torque that they follow, so they've got a lot of inspiration from good players, and the game has grown a lot in Chile. You see a lot of junior golfers. You see a lot of better academies, better coaches, better platforms.
But there's a lot of stuff behind that that you need private companies to invest in the game. At the end of the day, you need that money to have better events, to have junior players traveling around the world, coming to the U.S., going to Europe, playing different tournaments so they can get ready and they can learn and get a taste of it, of what it is to play professional golf and not take it as such a big challenge or a big surprise, so they can be ready at a younger age.
I feel like what they do in the U.S. is pretty cool. Obviously they've got a good platform. They've got junior kids that are playing qualifiers for the U.S. Open. In Europe you've got the amateur championships that are pretty good. It gets you ready for playing the Open.
In Chile, we've got to get more young players and also not just Chile, just in Latin America in general. You've got to get more young players playing in the U.S., playing in Europe, playing in Asia. We've got the kids. We've got the talent. We need a little more support.
Q. Bryson is going to be in here in a little bit. What can you learn from a player like that, winner of two of the last five U.S. Opens, just his approach to the game and how intense --
JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, Bryson obviously is an amazing player. He's proved that since his amateur career. He's always been pretty talented. He's a guy that works really hard, as well. He'll be the last one on the range.
I feel like what I can learn from Bryson is his intensity of getting better. You can see how he's always trying to figure out new stuff, how he can put that into his game.
I feel like Bryson is somebody that changes and tries new things every time, which I feel like is nothing wrong with that. You can learn a lot of stuff from new experiences.
Obviously he's a different -- he's way different than me, way different than anybody. The way he approaches the game is completely different, which I feel like is really unique, and in his way, it works for him.
It's nice to be around him. It's nice to be around good competitive guys. I'm playing with him this week, so it's going to be a good challenge for me to try to -- because I know how bad he wants to catch me on the rankings, and obviously I am trying to run away, in a way.
For me, it's exciting to have that pressure from him, knowing how good of a player he is, and it just gets me excited to keep working hard and play better.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports