Joaquin Niemann Backs Tougher Version Of Kevin Na’s LIV Golf Major-Pathway Idea

Fresh off the back of a 2025 Masters invite alongside Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard, Joaquin Niemann has voiced his support for Kevin Na's idea that all LIV winners and a select number of the circuit's top talent should earn exemptions into all of the Majors every year.

Niemann's fellow LIV captain, Na told Golf Monthly earlier this week that he believes each event winner - plus the top-16 in the final standings - should be exempt into all four Major championships moving forward.

Na argued that there are only 13 LIV tournaments each season and that with such a strong field, anyone who comes out on top is therefore equally capable of doing so at one of the four biggest events on the planet.

Torque leader, Niemann mostly agreed with his IronHeads GC counterpart on how LIV's Major exemption pathway should look but outlined a slightly more stringent cut-off point than the 16 best players each season.

Niemann said: "I would look at the rankings - whoever is the most consistent during the year has the chance to play at all the Majors next season. I would say the top-10 in the LIV rankings.

"LIV winners could be a way to do it, too, because if you are winning tournaments then you have a chance to win Majors. But, at the end of the day, I think it’s going to be pretty much the same with the top-10. They will all most likely win anyway."

According to his own theoretical pathway, Niemann would be in the field for each of the biggest championships during 2025 after winning twice last year and ending runner-up behind Jon Rahm in LIV's individual-season standings.

However, the harsh reality for the Torque GC captain is that he is only currently in two - The Open and now The Masters following good news earlier in the week.

Explaining how he came to learn he had been offered a start at the 89th Masters, the Chilean shared: "It’s pretty special that they invited me back again into The Masters. They called me [on Tuesday] - I had a phone call from one of the representatives of Augusta, calling on behalf of Fred Ridley - saying that I was invited on behalf of the good play lately. I had to wait until 10am [on Wednesday] to make it official."

Going on to say that he was hopeful of an invite into the PGA Championship as well, Niemann insisted he was just grateful for the Major starts he currently has and plans to create a more concrete schedule for himself by enjoying a good week at one of his current opportunities.

He continued: "LIV is fighting to get the best players spots straight into all the Majors, but for now… last year was the first year that I was not secure into the Majors and I was able to get into three of those.

"This year, I’ve started with Augusta. I’m just happy to be in and have the chance to play again.

"Playing well is the only way to get into most likely the US Open, which I’m going to be missing, but I just need to have a good week at one of the others and I’ll be in there, too."

NIEMANN ON RETAINING TRUST IN TORQUE AND THEIR 2025 GOALS

Niemann - who claimed his first LIV victory at Mayakoba last term, before following that up with success in Jeddah - proudly watched on as Carlos Ortiz scooped his own maiden title in Houston and Sebastian Munoz topped the individual podium at the season-ending Team Championship.

Despite four individual wins on the year and multiple finishes between second and fifth, Torque failed to secure a team prize at all - a significant dip compared to the season prior where they collectively triumphed on four occasions, not helped by a drop-off in Mito Pereira's form.

But Niemann insists he is not worried about his fellow Chilean and is backing the three-time Korn Ferry Tour winner to come good again in the coming months.

He said: "Last year showed how hard it was to win team events. For me, it was a great year. I know I could have done better, yes, but Carlos [Ortiz] had a great year - he won in Houston and was pretty consistent. He had some really good finishes.

"Sebastian [Munoz] had a really good season as well, a lot of his scores went towards the team score. And then Mito [Pereira] didn’t have his best year, but we all know the potential of Mito.

"If he can do what he did in 2023 when he was in contention a lot of weeks and finished I think top-10 in the rankings, we will have a good chance to win the season."

And winning the 2025 LIV Golf Team Championship is the only target Niemann is relaying to his roster, with Torque's captain stating he had no plans on changing his quartet between campaigns.

Niemann continued: "It’s hard to win, there are some pretty strong teams out there and we need to play good in all rounds - especially on Sunday - to have a chance. I feel like we’ve done that, but sometimes we’ve missed Friday and we haven’t started hot.

"I know it can happen anytime, we had some good finishes and we were pretty consistent inside the top-five, but we just didn’t win. Team-wise, we’ve got to improve a lot, we’ve got to play a lot better.

"We know our goals and that’s to be winning the [Team Championship]. We have to play better, it’s as simple as that. I trust my team, and I know with these four guys we can win the season. Whenever I don’t have that trust, I will be changing teams, but I do believe that we can win."

'I LOVE IT' - NIEMANN ON LIV'S PLAYER-FOCUSED 2025 SCHEDULE

Torque's quest to follow in the footsteps of Cameron Smith's Ripper GC begins in Saudi Arabia between February 6-8 and goes on to take in new locations such as Mexico City, Korea, and Indianapolis after LIV released its full 2025 schedule earlier this month.

Niemann was full of praise for the new-look calendar - which features tournaments in the immediate build-up to all four Majors, following on from feedback by some players who felt they were marginally undercooked heading into golf's biggest championships.

On the new schedule, Niemann said: "The new calendar is pretty good, I love it. I love the fact that we can have a nice off-season to prepare and get ready, and then it gets really intense from the first week of February to the end of August.

"I like the calendar how it is right now. We’re going to a few new places and a few other places that we’ve already been to and I love them. Going back to Riyadh, we might have a few interesting things going on that week, so I’m pretty excited for that.

"Going back to Australia in the summer time is going to be… the course is going to be firmer, it’s going to be a little different. That’s going to be fun, and we know how the atmosphere is there. Hong Kong, Valderrama, Singapore - they’re all really fun stops.

"The communication between the players and the league has been so good. At the end of the day, the league wants the best for the players, and asking the players how the calendar could work better for them to get better for the Majors…

"At the end of the day, us winning Majors is going to help the league, too. I like the way it’s been set up now. That’s why I said before that I love the calendar how it is right now. I feel like it can be used to our advantage."