Southampton (United States) (AFP) – Joaquin Niemann scored better angry and unprepared than most players with perfect preparation in Friday’s second round of the US Open after learning of a two-stroke penalty for throwing a club. Niemann, who hurled his sand wedge in frustration Thursday evening after hitting two balls out of bounds, was told of the penalty just before his second round on Friday, then went out and fired a five-under par 65 at windy Shinnecock.
“I knew I had a misbehavior, but I feel like everybody had some, and it’s never going to be anything major like a two-shot penalty,” Niemann said. “But it’s their decision, and I feel like, yeah, I wouldn’t be happy seeing players throwing clubs and behaving that way so, yeah, I agree.” The 27-year-old Chilean had only 37 minutes to regroup after completing his first round on Friday before his second round began.
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“It was hard,” Niemann said. “Took me probably 30 minutes to get over it. I felt like a little bit extra penalized with the two-shot penalty.” He added, “It definitely helped me a little bit to have a better round today.” Niemann birdied five of the first six holes, including the sixth—where he threw his wedge the night before—and finished with seven birdies and two bogeys in round two.
“Everything was on. Hit great tee shots. I kind of went out with a pretty aggressive mindset, so yeah, it worked out,” he said. With the two-stroke penalty for serious misconduct, Niemann scored a seven-over par 11 on the par-four sixth hole, the 15th of his first round. It left him with an eight-over 78.
“I hit it two times out of bounds on the right, two bad swings, then got pretty frustrated,” Niemann said. “I felt like my body wasn’t quite there.” Niemann also asked for relief from ants around his ball but was not given any.
“After that shot, I lay up, and the whole frustration went inside me. All the frustration that came inside me and had my club in my hand, and I couldn’t resist to throw it away. I was looking around. There were no people. No one there. I’m not proud of it, but sometimes, all the expectation of trying to play well and things don’t go your way, you get frustrated, and that was me there.”
Niemann has won eight times in LIV Golf, most recently last month in South Korea.
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