Joaquin Niemann's disastrous 6th hole in the opening round of the U.S. Open went from bad to worse after the Chilean was assessed a two-stroke penalty for throwing his club.
Niemann started his round on the 10th tee, and came to the 6th - his 15th of the day - sitting in a great spot at even par. However, he promptly struck two tee balls out of bounds and ended up carding a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par 4.
Let's check in on Joaquin Niemann playing the @usopengolf, shall we? 🚀 pic.twitter.com/hMfaxNS183
— Byron Lindeque (@TheModelManiac) June 19, 2026
Or so we thought.
Niemann threw his club in frustration at one point during the adventure and was assessed a two-stroke penalty for serious misconduct by the USGA after the round. That inflated his score on the 6th even further to a septuple-bogey 11.
Just talked to a volunteer, Tristan Chang, who witnessed Joaquin Niemann’s club throw that cost him a two-shot penalty:
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) June 19, 2026
-After hitting two balls OB, Niemann tried to get free relief from fire ants (to no avail) from where his third drive ended up in the fescue
-Got visibly…
The LIV star ended up posting an 8-over 78 to sit well back of the lead.
It's yet another poor showing in a major for Niemann in a career that has been severely lacking in golf's biggest events. He's a box office performer on LIV with eight wins on the circuit but has just one top-10 showing in 27 major starts.
Perhaps motivated by the events of Thursday, Niemann rebounded with a remarkable round on Friday. The 27-year-old made seven birdies en route to a 5-under 65 to make the cut.
