Joaquin Niemann wins LIV Mexico City, qualifies for U.S. Open off LIV Golf exemption

Joaquin Niemann won LIV Mexico City and officially qualified for the U.S. Open as a result.

Joaquin Niemann did it again.

The Chilean won for the third time on LIV this season in terms of the league’s individual titles. Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII took home the team win in Mexico City this past weekend while Niemann stood on the podium by his lonesome.

Something that is particularly notable about Niemann’s win, outside of the fact that he is playing pretty incredible golf right now, is that he officially earned an exemption for the U.S. Open. To be clear players earn exemptions for tournaments and/or majors all of the time and so that is not necessarily uncommon, but what is new is that this exemption is for a player specifically on the LIV Tour.

Back in February the USGA announced an exemption for the LIV Golf Tour and in the process became the first governing body of the sport do do so. Discussions, disagreements and/or feuds about LIV Golf have been raging on for several years now, but this is uncharted territory in terms of the exemption’s existence and therefore its earning by Niemann.

As noted Niemann has been playing very well this season and as a result earned a special invitation to The Masters which is how he was able to enter it. LIV has struggled for years now as mentioned to establish the earning power for its players to qualify for major championships which is why this is a relatively big deal.

Here is how the exemption works:

In claiming the 40 points that goes to each LIV Golf individual tournament winner, Joaquin Niemann extended his season-long points lead. Of his 124.66 points this season, 120 have come in his three tournament wins (Adelaide, Singapore and Mexico City).

He now leads Jon Rahm by 30.3 points and Sergio Garcia by 46.66 points. With one final tournament left before the U.S. Open’s LIV Golf exemption is awarded next month, Niemann has guaranteed himself a spot for Oakmont in June.

The exemption goes to the leading points player not already exempt in the top 3 of the standings as of May 19. Rahm is the only player who can mathematically overtake Niemann with a win in next week’s LIV Golf Korea, and he already has a spot in the U.S. Open. Garcia doesn’t have a spot but is too far behind.

Niemann already is in the PGA Championship and Open Championship, so he’ll play all four majors this year for the first time since 2023. He becomes the ninth LIV Golf player expected to be in the U.S. Open field.

There continues to be a lack of clarity as to what any potential union and/or merger would look like with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. This is new territory, but it may or may not lead to something further down the road.

We will all have to continue to wait to see.