After two wins in three LIV Golf starts in 2024, there’s little doubt that Joaquin Niemann is the hottest player on the circuit, and he’s looking to make it three wins in four as the Tour heads to Hong Kong for the first time since the league started in 2022.
Niemann is highly fancied to land his first major championship having played well at Augusta National before and been the recent recipient of an invitation postmarked ‘GA’ and another win this week would take his LIV season’s earnings over $12 million with still more than two thirds of the year to come. The Chilean started his LIV campaign by shooting the magical ’59’ number in Mayakoba, and hard as it is to fathom, things have gotten even better since.
After three top 10 finishes, Jon Rahm will be chomping at the bit to get back in the winners’ circle, especially since the reigning Masters champion held at least a share of the lead in the final round in each of his first two LIV starts and lead halfway through last week’s 54-hole event in Saudi Arabia. Expectations were high that Rahm would dominate when he became the most high-profile LIV signing to date back in December, but things haven’t quite panned out the way both the powerful Spaniard and the golfing world had envisaged.
Much of the LIV Jeddah pre-tournament narrative had centred around the return to professional golf of Anthony Kim, but the 38-year-old, coming off a 12-year absence, found the going tough, finishing last by some 11 strokes. With 54 competitive holes behind him, however, we can expect to see an improved performance this week, even if finishing in the top half of the field seems like an odd-against proposition.
Whilst most of the field are seeing Hong Kong Golf Club for the first time, Graeme McDowell is no stranger, having played the Asian Tour’s International Series event here last November and finishing 12th, and it’s a course that’s been kind to the Irish down through the years with Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington winning the Hong Kong Open while it was part of the European Tour schedule, and Shane Lowry, McIlroy twice, Harrington, Ronan Rafferty and David Feherty all finished runners-up at various stages throughout the event’s history.
McDowell has been given a new lease of life since joining Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC, saying as much in an interview with Golf Magic earlier in the week.
“The Cleeks relationship had kind of run its course a little bit,” McDowell said. “It wasn’t really a good fit. I don’t think Martin saw a future with me on the team, which is disappointing.
“At the time, you know, I was worried, I was worried about my future; you know, my contract with LIV was up, and it was clear that Cleeks didn’t want me on the team. So you know Brooks really offered me a lifeline.”
Cameron Smith was another who teed it up at last year’s Hong Kong Open, finishing runner-up, but the former Open champion has yet to fully ignite this season and sits one place behind McDowell in the season rankings at 20th. But short, strategic tests are right up the Aussie’s alley, and he’ll be expecting a big performance this week.
Strange as it is to say, Dustin Johnson has been the surprise package of the year, getting his third LIV tournament victory in Las Vegas, a week after a top five finish at the season-opening Mayakoba event after the 39-year-old had self-confessedly done very little practicing in the run up. Well known as one of the game’s premier power players during his storied career, the nonchalant North Carolinian is more than adept at plotting his way round a course and he’ll enjoy the test of a 6,700-yard par-70 more than most.
Niemann, Smith and Bryson DeChambeau will start on hole number one, with fellow captains Koepka, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson up ahead on hole number two. Johnson, Rahm and last week’s joint runner-up Louis Oosthuizen are the other marquee grouping, and they start on number three, while McDowell is paired with Matthew Wolff and Sebastian Munoz on number seven.
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