Joaquin Niemann fired a 6-under-par 65 and extended his lead to five shots halfway through LIV Golf New York on Friday in Bedminster, N.J.
After rounds of 64-65, the Chilean stands at 13-under 129, five strokes ahead of England’s Lee Westwood and six better than Spain’s Sergio Garcia. Westwood and Garcia both matched Niemann’s 65 at Trump National Golf Club.
Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin (66) and Harold Varner III (67) are tied for fourth place at 6 under par.
Australia’s Lucas Herbert and England’s Ian Poulter both started the day two shots behind Niemann, but fell off the pace with rounds of even-par 71 and 1-over 72, respectively. At 5 under through 36 holes, Herbert is tied with three others, while Poulter is tied for 10th at 4 under.
Niemann, who is looking for his ninth LIV Golf individual title, leads the field in strokes gained off the tee and approach. But he is still not satisfied with where he is.
“I mean, to be honest, that’s the kind of discussion that I always have with my coach,” Niemann said. “He would come out to me and say, ‘Hey, you were No. 1 in strokes gained off the tee or approach to the green or whatever stat.’ But I don’t feel like — I feel like I’m hitting it a lot better. I feel like it can be a lot better, too, right now.
“I know how I can kind of get closer to that better. So I’m just working towards that. I just like feeling my body before the shot, seeing what the ball wants to do and try to match my body muscles to kind of recreate that.”
The 27-year-old has yet to make a bogey through 36 holes. For the second consecutive day, he birdied five of the nine holes on the front side. Niemann went on to par Nos. 10-17 and closed with a birdie four at the par-5 18th hole.
After hitting 15 of 18 greens in regulation Thursday, he found the surface 16 of 18 times on Friday.
Westwood caught fire on the sixth hole, birdieing three in a row and four of five. Like Niemann, he converted for birdie on No. 18.
The veteran Englishman will keep the same game plan for the weekend.
“I’m delighted with 8 under par after two days,” Westwood said. “Joaco is obviously a world-class player. For me, he’s top 20 in the world.
“When he’s on his game, he can run away with a tournament.”
Garcia, who was even par through 14 holes on Thursday, made seven birdies on Friday, but avoided the trouble he found in the opening round when he suffered through two bogeys and a double-bogey.
Garcia admitted there was not much the rest of the field could do if Niemann kept playing at his current pace.
“Well, I think that Joaco has everything that you want to have in your game to be able to do amazing things in golf,” Garcia said. “So obviously he’s got a great head on his shoulders. I think that he’s a very positive guy. He really loves and enjoys the game. He can drive it really, really well and hit it very far. So that’s a great combination. His iron play, it’s always at a good level.”
Niemann also has the team he captains, Torque GC, comfortably on top of the team leaderboard. Torque is 9 under for the week, five shots clear of HyFlyers GC.
–Field Level Media
