Greenbrier Recap: Niemann Achieves Historic Victory

We should begin by acknowledging that the biggest story in golf this past week was the Solheim Cup, a riveting, down-to-the-wire competition won by the Europeans over the Americans at Gleneagles on Sunday. And that's saying something, because all told it was a pretty impressive week in golf, especially coming at this point on the sports calendar:

• Young Joaquin Niemann turned in a historic win at the Greenbrier as the new PGA Tour season got underway.

• No-longer-young Sergio Garcia finally used a golf club in the proper way and, surprise, it resulted in a victory on the European Tour.

• Kevin Chappell, who less than a year ago had trouble walking, shot the 11th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history, an 11-under 59 on Friday.

• The PGA Tour's new cut line of top-65 and ties went into effect and had a huge, immediate impact, costing 16 golfers two rounds of golf and a paycheck.

First, Niemann.

He registered a whopping six-stroke victory at the Greenbrier (official name: A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier) to become the first Chilean to win a PGA Tour event and only the third International player since WWII to win one before turning 21. Perhaps you've heard of the other two: Seve Ballesteros and Rory McIlroy.

The victory also extended the recent ascension of youth on the PGA Tour. In the past four months, the Tour has seen the arrival of youngsters Viktor Hovland, Matthew Wolff, Collin Morikawa and now Scottie Scheffler. Sungjae Im was on hand all last season, resulting in him winning Rookie of the Year.

Niemann has been around longer than all of them despite being younger than all but Wolff. He's still 20 for a couple of months. After bursting on the scene in 2017-2018 following a stellar amateur career, Niemann took a step back last season. We often see that in young players, where the second season is more challenging than the first. But Niemann was also beset by terrible putting, ranking 141st in strokes gained: putting. Well, guess what? He led the Greenbrier field in SG putting, and if that continues, well, watch out, because his tee-to-green game is world class (ranked 23rd last season in strokes gained: tee to green).

On the other hand – and this is the part in the movie where we pump the brakes -- this was a very weak field, one that featured only six golfers in the top-50 in the world rankings. Niemann entered 84th. Now, he's up to a career-best 50th, higher than all those other youngsters.

It might be too soon to consider Niemann in the majors, but then again there aren't any for more than six months. Regardless, over the course of this season he surely could climb into the top-20 in the world and get to the Tour Championship next August.

The new PGA Tour cut line almost surely didn't affect Niemann's chances of winning. Sixty-seven guys made the cut, though 83 would've done so under the previous rule of top-70 and ties. The chance of any one of those 16 guys contending for the title would've been remote, as they were 10 shots behind Niemann at the midway point. But who's to say one of them couldn't have gotten super hot on the weekend to climb into the top-five or top-10? After all, while Niemann was 10 shots clear of them, he ended up at least six clear of everyone.

This new rule will hurt a lot of guys, mostly the lesser ones, and potentially cost some of them a lot of money, which could be the deciding factor on whether they keep their cards.

Yes, golf and all sports are meritocracies, but at some point the rich getting richer at the expense of those who aren't rich – or, in golf's case, who aren't quite as rich – seems an unnecessary and maybe even punitive change.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Sergio Garcia
After a year in which Garcia made headlines only for beating up sand traps and tee boxes, it was quite a contrast seeing him celebrate with his wife and young child by his side. Garcia won the KLM Open in Amsterdam, albeit in a field far weaker than the weak Greenbrier. He held off the feared Nicolai Hojgaard by a stroke, though we should mention that Matt Wallace (solo third) and Patrick Reed (T15), both ranked higher than the Spaniard, were also in the field. Garcia is now back up to No. 32 in the word.

Tom Hoge
Last season, Hoge earned 252 FedEx Cup points over 32 starts, good to rank 159th in the standings. He went backward to the Korn Ferry playoffs. Well, he's already surpassed that point total in one tournament, securing a whopping 300 for his solo runner-up at the Greenbrier. Hoge does not need to do a whole heckuva lot the rest of the season to secure his card; last season, Pat Perez finished 125th with 376 points. Hoge is and will be like a lot of the secondary and tertiary golfers who rely on only a few good weeks over an almost-12-month season to accumulate the bulk of their points, and money. Of course, it's impossible for us gamers to predict when those few good weeks will surface. If you happened to have Hoge in your lineup, congrats. But dare we say it was just one very successful dart throw. And, frankly, that's what you often need to win your games, especially the big ones.

Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler pulled off the rare double by winning both the Korn Ferry regular season and playoffs. As such, he's the only one of the 50 graduates not subject to a reshuffle. It's a perk he'll take but doesn't appear he'll need. The 23-year-old Texas alum couldn't hang with Niemann over the weekend but still did pretty well for himself, tying for seventh. He's up to 84th OWGR and really could be this season's Sungjae Im and win Rookie of the Year, even over Viktor Hovland.

Viktor Hovland
Hovland wasn't far behind Scheffler, tying for 10th and just missing a move into the top-100 OWGR (101st). He shot four rounds in the 60s and now has run off 17 in a row, something not seen on Tour in more than 35 years. We're not knocking Hovland when we say Scheffler can win the Rookie of the Year. It's just that Scheffler is that good. So is Hovland, and he probably has more upside, just days before turning 22. This week, keep an eye on the BMW PGA Championship, one of the signature events on the European Tour. Hovland is in the field, and it's loaded. Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Jon Rahm, Francesco Molinari, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, Shane Lowry and more are entered. This will be a much truer test for Hovland than the Greenbrier.

Sungjae Im
Yes, another young guy. Im tied for 19th and fired the first hole-in-one of the season, on the 233rd-yard 15th hole on Thursday. Well wow, 233 ain't no chip shot. The thing to watch for with Im this season is, of course, how much he plays. Yes, he's only 21, but he made 35 starts last season, easily the most on Tour. At some point, rest will do him good. Naturally, he's in the field for this week's Sanderson Farms and is now up to 54th in the OWGR.

Harry Higgs
The Korn Ferry grad tied for 19th in his PGA Tour debut. That's right, the 27-year-old Higgs had never played a Tour event before. It seems almost impossible that someone of his age and ability hadn't gotten so much as a sponsor exemption at some point. Besides the KF Tour, Higgs has played on the Mackenzie and Latinoamerica Tours. Frankly, finishing 19th is pretty darn good when the nerves had to be jangling.

Kevin Chappell
Chappell pulled of the incredible feat of not shooting any rounds in the 60s at the Greenbrier. He shot his 59 in the second round and in the 70s the other three days to tie for 47th. On one hand, anyone not completely healthy cannot shoot a 59. On the other, maybe Chappell still has a ways to go before returning to his full Tour-playing self. He played only three fall events last season before a back injury ended his season. He returned for the Korn Ferry playoffs and didn't do well enough to keep his card. But he still is playing under a major medical extension, and regaining his card should be a snap.

Zach Johnson
Johnson, coming off his worst season as a pro – he missed the playoffs for the first time and fell outside of the top-100 in the world – is trying to get a jump-start on 2019-20. But he missed the cut and now will try again this week at the Sanderson in Mississippi. We don't have a good feeling that Johnson will get any better this season. But he's still exempt for one more year thanks to the 2015 Open Championship, still his last win anywhere in the world.

Bryson DeChambeau
In the DraftKings preview for this tournament, we noted that even though DeChambeau had not been playing well, the No. 10 player in the world could not be overlooked in a field this weak. Well, that's mistake No. 1 of many to come this season. DeChambeau missed the cut and as a parting gift fell out of the top-10, to 11th OWGR. We really will have to see some positive results, and more than one, before investing in him again.