LIV Golf Virginia was absolute chaos—and Joaquin Niemann came out swinging. 🏆 We break down his dominant run, the stacked final round, and what this means heading into the U.S. Open.
In this clip:
💣 Niemann shoots 67-68-63 in a loaded LIV field
⚡ Can he beat Scottie Scheffler at a major?
🧨 Final round madness: Bubba, Phil, Bryson, all in the mix
🔁 Phil & Bryson’s villain-to-hero YouTube redemption
📺 Can YouTube actually fix reputations in pro golf?
😂 Patrick Reed, Rory, Cantlay—who needs a channel next?
Presented by Sports Illustrated
i just want to take a minute to talk about Neman this dude is unstoppable gary what is the disconnect why is WE Nean dominating on Liv but is not really doing much in the majors uh in my head obviously you get paid a bunch of this money and now you’re over here and like there’s a lot of big names on Liv but he’s one of the bigger ones in my head and that kind of just helped him stay quiet he stayed in his lane and he focused and grinded and now he’s doing what he’s doing but when you’re swinging you know 360 yard drives and you’re 120 pounds and you can see your nine 10 packs or your shirt as you swing like the kid’s got some skill and some athleticism so I am love I’m here for it cuz walking Nemon’s awesome josh do you think he’s got any chance against Sheffller no that’s that’s true but somehow I don’t know how he snuck out with this win because this live Virginia took over the pro golf scene this past weekend it it completely shattered beat some numbers i don’t know if it beat it in numbers but the talk is more about Live Virginia than the RBC well I think the tough thing about the RBC is a lot of the big names didn’t make it into the weekend and I think it kind of came around by the end of Sunday i mean getting to see Sam Burns make it into the playoff but kind of going into Sunday the leaderboard was I don’t know great a lot of upandcomers i like to see it i mean you know what I mean we want to see some new names grow the game the whole thing but at the same time we’d like to see Rory in the mi in the mix and not missing the cut and I don’t know i think that just makes it tough when you get viewers at home who go through the leaderboard and it it looks like you’re watching like a cornfairy tour event because you don’t know any of these guys’ names i don’t know i just don’t think there’s a big investment from the viewers at home no plus especially what happened within that last round on at Live there was I think six people that were tied with like at at least the back nine to go wow yeah it was and there were names where you wouldn’t think like Bubba Watson you had Phil uh Bryson phil’s your guy phil is my guy why would you think the name would be up there though because they were playing they were just I was watching the highlights i didn’t I wasn’t able to watch the actual uh telecast and they were just everyone was hitting darts i don’t know if it was the course i don’t know what it was but all of a sudden everyone just lit it up that final round well and then uh Wim Neman of course was just playing a great golf all weekend what do you have up 67 68 63 what did you shoot in round four there is no round four it’s lit that’s right i forget they’ve got the abbreviated weekend nice 15 though for the three days yeah that’s fantastic golf i mean to go 67 68 63 just to like make sure that you lock in when’s the last time you won 67 oh uh on the front nine or the back before the war before the war thank you i when I was going through all the stats and stuff it was going in chronological order and I forgot Liv has a shotgun start yeah so I’m like why is one and two on the bottom here i’m like oh never mind he started on on three i maybe that’s it maybe Wim Neman you know gets all tuckered out by day four maybe i don’t know he’s ready for a nap you know not a Sunday golfer well somebody’s got to feed them so energy so Dan is that why you think that Liv and PGA should be totally separate because they just can’t make it the four days i don’t i really don’t i mean these guys play every single day of the week you know what I mean like they’re they’re always practicing there’s always some form of golf going on and you got a a young guy i mean look at this he’s pumping that walk is pumping that trophy over his head like it’s nothing that thing probably weighs like 35 lbs nice look at Look at those guns like four pounds heavier than him gary do you see those triceps coming out down there look at that this guy’s like uh poke a eye out kid he’s like comes out of the the Superman phone booth to win another round i did like that Liv this week was you know in the in the normal time zones because it’s always tough whenever they’re playing way overseas and it’s like two o’clock in the morning they’re playing well yeah and then like I think they did that one I forgot which which tournament it was but they decided to just play it as night golf so that way it would air during the day here but then the other ones they’re like because I have the app and I’ll be like you know round two is starting and I’m like it’s like midnight you know what I mean like what are we doing casey’s over there smacking you turn your phone off yeah I’m watching live golf leave me alone you know what’s also nice turn your screen brightness down i thought for a fact within the year I saw him at where Broling Brook like I I was wing at Bringing Brook bowling Brook bowling Brook thank you um you know he was walking the way you know how my back hurt so I was like within a year I feel like he’s going to have some issues or he’s going to take care of it and obviously he’s been taken care of because Do you think he’s going to like run into some Will Salisurus type situations where he’s in and out of back surgery if there’s anybody that does this him you ever see the rotation in his swing it’s like Rory’s cuz Rory I think has like 130 degree different turn compared to most pros because he’s able to get there this is another one of those to players that could do that well and this guy he has like so much like side bend through impact where he’s like leaned all the way over um when I was at the PGA Championship I was actually standing behind him like filming slow-mo swings and it was just so fun to go back and watch just to see like the Wim Neman move broken down I don’t know whatever like 120 frames per second just to like see what’s happening in there because there’s a lot going on it happens quick the dude is just phenomenal he is phenomenal well hopefully hopefully he can bring some of that energy into a US Open because I feel like I feel like he’s got the game i feel like he’s got everything it takes but I don’t know one last day one less day wrap it up on Saturday get the guys guys can we wrap this uh US over but um I don’t know i hope I hope so um it is it is crazy how close everybody is at live i mean because we’re looking here between T1 and T4 of course I just lost i scrolled right past it oh great let go but I mean you were T1 all the way down to T7 so the top seven players were within two strokes of each other like three strokes of each other like super close for an entire you know weekend of golf did you see Phil Mickelson doing his uh standard Phil Mickelson thing pulling off some trick shots oh yeah when he like hit it backwards yeah he’s like on like the lip of a bunker like standing one foot in one foot out like makes the ball go the other direction and then it just does everything it’s supposed to did you hear Bryson’s reaction to that no what’d he say oh he’s like I had the perfect view for it so I’m like first of all standing i’m like wait what’s he doing he’s like oh god gota pay attention to this he’s like boom ball sails right up over me comes lands perfectly on the green it was of course a Phil Mickelson shot i think that Bryce still is a fan of the game that much where this is awesome he knew as soon as he saw where the ball was he’s like “Oh I got to watch this.” Like he knew Phil was going to do something outlandish and you know you’re Gary I think you bring up a great point like he he is like you know still being a fan of the game you know you see some of these guys that are like already halfway off the green or whatever like halfway to the next te like filling off their scorecard and then here he is he’s like wait Phil’s about to do some like Phil [ __ ] like I should probably watch and thinking about like dude Bryson was hated for so long the villain of golf and now he’s like he doesn’t have to deal with the nonsense and now he gets to feel all the repercussions of being liked and so now how much more enjoyable is him going to these tour events you know is Phil still a villain phil not Bryce but Bryce is not I’m talking about i know i’m just curious though is Phil’s a villain in YouTube videos that’s for sure that guy is Yeah he’s a villain yeah but dude when he’s doing when he’s playing with Grant come on like how do you not love the guy i think it’s when he’s switching his stuff to meters from feet or yards that’s the villain we all deserve yeah like it’s hilarious we love it but it’s still villain i feel like there is a difference though like when Phil first went to live and like that book came out and like all his gambling secrets and everything and it was just like his whole life was crumbling and then like Phil kind of goes away drops a few pounds starts a coffee company and comes back with like I don’t know a little different demeanor a little bigger smile on his face and then the evolution into YouTube golf with Grant I don’t know I just feel like it’s different I feel like we have a slightly different um I don’t know perspective or point of view on the the villain if we would like the Phil villain the hatred of Phil growing up as a Tiger fan well Tiger you know super fan like wait you like Tiger Woods but like literally like I if he was like anything I’d be like “Oh whatever.” But now when I’m watching him with Grant and he’s messing with Grant he’s like “I think it’s every young golfer’s dream to become a highf flyer.” He’s like He’s like “What why are you laughing is that anyone’s dream?” I don’t think I didn’t even know what a highf flyierly was till he said it no I’m kidding i did 100% so you don’t have like a ton of logoed gear with a highf flyier stuff on it yeah I have Phil going when he won the masters on my shirt for sure wow so Dan here’s a question for you do we think that YouTube is like a villain a villain savior like you know you take Bryson you take Phil like definite villains for sure spend the time on YouTube you know i think that’s an interesting point like maybe there is like a move there if if you have fallen off in the eyes of the golf community head to YouTube work for Bryson working for Phil has anybody become a villain because of YouTube i I don’t think we’ve had any of the reverse effect wesley Bryan um not to the fans but I think to PGA but yes well no but here’s one uh I think people love him even more though because of all that at the same time oh for sure no I don’t think he’s villain at all uh but but Minulee he because he was YouTube was getting a lot of hate from golf but then you get like you know the Ben Griffin win and he did win and then I think people thought he could play golf again i like the Ben Griffins of the world i mean similarly he was more of just kind of like a flying under the radar guy posting Tik Toks about you know I don’t know what it costs to travel and how much luggage fees are and stuff and now all a sudden the guy is like a two-time PGA Tour winner trying to chase down Scotty like I you know he he never really was in any of the villain categories i don’t know it’s interesting maybe there’s something there though keep an eye on that all right here’s the question then who could use a YouTube channel to maybe change the point of view of what people think about him rory oh 1,000 i could imagine if Rory became a YouTube golfer he goes I don’t I don’t watch YouTube i don’t know any of these YouTube golfers and then everyone’s like we can’t stand you and then he comes up and he’s like I prefer real golf where we’re playing for I I prefer to watch the best golf in the world some super overcompensating emotional damage going on there with these responses and actions he’s been taking as of late do you think it’s it’s related to some form of childhood uh trauma no it’s his love for Shane Lowry you can’t have it wow oh my god interesting you know who needs a YouTube channel uh Patrick Can you know what I mean or Windom Clark patrick Reed or Patrick Patrick Reed there we go needs to get on golf YouTube oh god thought I’d watch it actually that would be the story arc of a lifetime
