Joaquin Niemann acknowledges having a “target” on Rory McIlroy as he enters DP World Tour

Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann will start his 2025 season at the Dubai Desert Classic in January. He had a brilliant season on the LIV Golf this year, even coming second behind Jon Rahm in the Individual Championship standings.

Niemann had a conversation with Flushing It Golf about his participation at the Dubai Desert Classic. He discussed his "motivation" behind taking part in the DP World Tour event. While one his biggest aims is obviously to collect as many OWGR points as possible, he has other goals as well.

"Other than that, I mean, I actually enjoy playing on the DP World Tour. And for me, having a chance to compete on those events where the two finals, the two Rolex Series, it was special and, you know, it's always nice to win, to try to win good tournaments. So that was another reason to be there." (2:50 - 3:08)

The Dubai Desert Classic is pretty much Rory McIlroy's battleground. The Northern Irish star has won the tournament four times. He recently picked up the season-ending DP World Tour Championship title after leading the Race to Dubai rankings. Joaquin Niemann, who had placed T7 at the European finale event, spoke about competing with McIlroy.

"I mean, giving myself a chance competing there and, you know, there was good fields. It was always nice to play with Rory, try to beat him where he played great. And he was kind of like the target because he was leading the race to Dubai." (3:09 - 3:23)

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"I see myself obviously trying to win these tournaments" - Joaquin Niemann

Joaquin Niemann (Source: Imagn)

Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann put his OWGR points in jeopardy after he switched to LIV Golf in 2022. After his defection, he was banned from all PGA Tour events. Even after three seasons, the Saudi-backed circuit is yet to achieve OWGR points, thus risking the world rankings of all the players.

This also gives LIV Golfers very limited chances to compete in the majors. Niemann talked about the DP World Tour events being his opportunity to improve on his world ranking (via Flushing It Golf).

"And then, having world ranking, which I feel like I'm pretty far away to get into a number that it really kind of gave me a chance to get into the majors, which is top 50 at the end of the year, which is, I mean, I see it's hard to get in there. Only play in four tournaments. So, so yeah, I mean, I got up." (3:28 - 3:49)

He further added:

"I see myself obviously trying to win these tournaments because I like competing and then other than that, I can get into the Open, which I already did." (3:51 - 3:59)

Niemann was last seen at the Australian Open where he placed T5. He will next compete at the Dubai Desert Classic taking place from January 18th to 21st 2024 at the Emirates Golf Club, Dubai.