LIV Golf's Joaquin Niemann Receives Latest Major Championship Invite

For the second consecutive year, LIV Golf's Joaquin Niemann has received invites to both The Masters and the PGA Championship.

Niemann's second consecutive Masters invitation was confirmed last month, with the Chilean a former winner of the Latin America Amateur Championship - an event co-founded by Augusta National Golf Club.

The 2024 LIV Golf runner-up was this week confirmed to have been added to the field for the second men's Major of the year in May, when Quail Hollow Club will host its second PGA Championship. Niemann's fellow LIV Golfer, Sergio Garcia, has also received an invite in the field after finishing 3rd in the LIV Golf League last season.

The Saudi-backed 54-hole tour does not award world ranking points to its players so Niemann is currently ranked 68th in the world, which is below the top 50 cut-off for Augusta. The PGA Championship usually features all of the world's top 100 male golfers so his invite to Quail Hollow comes as no surprise.

David Puig, who plays for Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC team, is currently ranked 77th in the world so could well be the next LIV player invited into the PGA Championship field.

Niemann has been commended for his play outside of LIV Golf since winning the 2023 Australian Open to qualify for the 2024 Open. He has posted a number of top-five and top-10 finishes on the DP World Tour and Asian Tour over the past year as well as winning his first Asian Tour title at the 2024 Saudi International in December.

His play in the LIV Golf League has also been impressive, with the 26-year-old winning twice in the 2024 season in Mexico and Saudi Arabia to finish 2nd to Jon Rahm in the individual standings.

He currently sits 14th in Data Golf's rankings, which is based on a Strokes Gained system, while The Universal Golf Rankings, which also measures Strokes Gained, has him 9th.

The two-time PGA Tour winner has a surprisingly underwhelming Major record, with a best finish of T16 at the 2023 Masters from his 22 Major appearances. He played in three Majors last year and made the cut in all three, recording a best result of T22 at The Masters.

He will need to make his way into the US Open and The Open via qualifying this year if he is to tee it up in the other two men's Majors.