Joaquín Niemann is the best puncher of the US Open and goes up one place

Joaquín Niemann’s 13th hole yesterday was able to fight perfectly for the prize of the day’s shot in the third round of the US Open. After a good tee shot, the ball was on the green in that par 3, but not especially close, but at 21 yards, almost 20 meters. The only birdie option was to catch it from there and Joaco did not miss.

It was one of the Chilean’s high points on Saturday at the US Open, which is taking place at the Winged Foot GC. The round would end with 72 hits. With +3 in the accumulated (68-73-72) he rose from 12th to 11th place (see table).

As the day began, the horizon looked dark. Niemann started the day with bogeys on the first two holes. In the first one he went to the sand instead of landing directly on the green and that cost him dearly. In the second he fell into the complicated rough of the course in Mamaroneck, which complicated him to the point of reaching the green in three instances.

The drama continued on the 5th hole, a par 4 but it runs 500 yards. There Niemann zigzagged without hitting the fairway, closing well with two putts. Five holes player and +3 on his card of the day, he would not be so low again (27th appeared on the board at that time).

It was time to go back. At Winged Foot that is not saying and doing. He started trying on the next hole. It was not a birdie, but he saved an exit with par that left him in the area with the longest grass, but he resolved by attacking that green.

In 8 he did not hit the fairway either (or he did in just six of the 14 on the day), but he scored par as well. Birdies seemed not far off. And so it was. At hole 9, the first par five he faced made his game: he took advantage of the straight course and hit harder than ever, so that the ball traveled 371 yards.

The starting distance has been one of the Chilean’s outstanding statistics in this US Open. In fact, he is the exclusive leader in those numbers, averaging 337.5 yards for the three days of the tournament. The second is the Spanish Jon Rahm, with 333.4; and third, the English Paul Casey, with 330.5. In itself, it is just a statistic, but sometimes it helps a lot to get closer to the target.

In the return the suffering would be less. Although he scored bogey already in 10, for a badly saved bunker in that par 3, the joys would fall: in the 13th, with the outstanding putt of 20 meters, with the pairs bypassing the fairway on holes 14 and 15; and the birdie of 16, which was perfect, saving a dogleg to the left leaving the ball overlooking the green and then leaving the ball in the putting area.

At 17 he let go a good birdie opportunity, perhaps a bit hasty on the final blow, and at 18 he bogeyed after making three putts. Before that he was top 10 on the board.

Today, the national will go out to play the fourth round to finally know what will be your position in which you will surely be the best higher of his career, because in the 2018 PGA Championship, the other where he made the cut, he was 71st and in this American Open 61 golfers are still in the race. Joaco leaves at 1:24 PM (from Chile) with local Webb Simpson.

Unless Rory McIlroy, seventh in the table, says otherwise, today in New York a player who has never lifted the US Open cup will be crowned. It is even possible for a name to be added to the list of winners of Big leagues. They have never gotten a “big” Matthew Wolff, Bryson DeChambeau, Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English or Xander Schauffele, while Louis Oosthuizen has not gotten North American Opens.

The solid leader, just 21 years old, barely has a PGA Tour title to his name. Wolff will go out this Sunday to make history, although anything can happen. Patrick Reed already knows, leader until Friday, who yesterday made seven over par.