Joaquín Niemann, the Chilean athlete who has raised the most millions in his career: the costs and benefits of making the jump to LIV Golf

Neither Tiger Woods, nor Rory McIlroy, nor Commissioner Monahan could prevent Joaquín Niemann from leaving the LIV Golf Invitational Series , the multi-million dollar super league funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. The best Chilean golfer of all time decided to cross paths after a large offer, the same as reported Jock on August 12 and that changed the entire panorama I had in mind at the start.

Determination has long been studied by the talagantino amidst his appearance in the last three PGA Playoffs, where he put in the best performance since becoming part of the world’s golfing elite. And the point is that the proposal involves not only a huge sum of money (some international media speak of up to 100 million US dollars), but also opens up a new sports scenario for him in a circuit that is fighting against the vetoes that the American tour has imposed on its now former players, who have even taken the dispute to US courts. Perhaps the most complex of the whole operation.

In terms of format, LIV offers two types of competition: an individual and a team, where each team has a captain. Joaco, initially, would be one of them. The tournaments last three days. That is to say 54 holes, without cuts and with shorter tee times and faster playing windows.

Not only did the arrival of the Chilean hit the PGA, because with him The world number two and champion of the British Open 2022, the Australian Cameron Smith, the Americans Harold Varner III (46th) and Cameron Tringale (55th), the also Australian Marc Leishman (62nd) and the best Indian player, were Anirban Lahiri (92). All join prestigious personalities such as bubba watson who will be a non-player captain, and other legends like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.

The big complication is that none of the events earn points for the world ranking , so the pupil of Eduardo Miquel will have to look for alternatives if he does not want to lose positions in the medium term. He is currently 19th in the world, but your qualification for the Olympic Games could be seriously affected if you can’t keep adding, because from now on You will not be able to participate in PGA tournaments, precisely what gives more units in the ranking.

One of the options to add is in the Asian Tour. Precisely, this circuit announced an agreement with the LIV to expand the events, in exchange for millionaire sums and logistical collaboration for this new platform and thus be able to find an alternative to obtain units.

“LIV Golf independently applies for World Ranking Points, but the process requires nomination by one of the Tours’ full members. As a good partner, era nuestra responsabilidad ayudar a LIV Golf a presentar su offer para obtention points para el ranking mundial y eso ya está en marche: el Asian Tour los ha nominado y están brindando técnica que respaldará su solicitud con la intención de obtained points en el ranking mundial next year” announced a few days ago the executive director and commissioner of the Asian Tour, Cho Minn Thant.

If the economics of the decision are made, Niemann will be greatly favored. Not only because of the entry bonus, but also because of the generous prizes offered by LIV tournaments, which are higher than those of majors this season, something the PGA is trying to correct for the next due to the mass exodus of numbers.

Indeed, each event of the regular season (these are the first seven) delivers a bag of $25 million. Of this amount, 20 million US dollars will be distributed to the 48 participating golfers. The winner will receive 4 million US dollars and the final 120,000 US dollars. The other five million US dollars are split between the teams that finished in the top three places. ($3 million for the winner, $1.5 million for the second and $500,000 for the third).

In the case of the individual draw, the athletes who participated In at least four events, a prize pool of US$30 million will be shared. Thus, the individual champion will receive 18 million US dollars; the second, US$8 million; and the third, $4 million. Meanwhile, the winning team of the season will pocket US$16 million and the one with the lowest ranking, US$1 million.

During his PGA career, Joaquín Niemann reaped profits for $14,583,484 surpassing the marks of Marcelo Ríos, who achieved US$9,713,771 in prizes, split by both their singles and doubles tournaments. Or Fernando González, who pocketed US$8,862,276 during his time at the ATP.

But the millionaire bonus he will receive for reaching LIV allows him to surpass any other athlete in terms of earnings, even national footballers as popular as Alexis Sánchez, Arturo Vidal or Claudio Bravo, who throughout their careers have also reached figures of several zeros.

Jorge Niemann, the father of the best Chilean exhibitor of all time, took the floor to defend the determination of his son, who added questions. He did so through a reflection posted on his Facebook account, which he titled Joaco and the LIV series.

“Joaco always made great and good decisions which, at the time, in the eyes of others, were not. At 12 he left normal school to devote himself 100% to golf, many of his relatives see it as a pleasure, a mistake and a whim Time has spoken and a South American champion has established himself in pre-juvenile, junior, world champion and has won numerous tournaments in Latin America and the USA. he was the top 1 in the amateur world,” he begins to point out.

“At 18, he couldn’t or didn’t want to go to college in the United States and made the leap to professionalism. Lots of criticism too, that it wasn’t the way to go, and through his tenacity, hard work and golf, he took every opportunity to get his PGA card. He spent 4 seasons with growing success, he managed to be the highest ranked Latino in the world and then always top 30 in the FedEx Cup,” he adds.

And, in this sense, Niemann Sr. directly confronts those who pursue his son. “Today they see that the decision he made was not the best, that he left for money and other epithets that come out of the woods, yet I believe that time will finally give him reason; in 5 years a lot will happen,” he says.

Likewise, he points out that the offer was accepted with all the elements in the balance and affirms that “Joaco made his decision with all the information on the table, the pros and cons. He continues with the same passion for his sport; It will be a different modality that will eventually find its way into the sports world.

“As a father, I will always continue to support him in everything he undertakes and I am convinced that he will be very happy in this new stage”, he endorses, before ending with a confession: “Finally , no one goes to the LIV, The LIV series picks the top. They knew how many golfers wanted to cross the line”.