Joaquín Niemann does not arrive in Singapore as just any player. He arrives as the reigning champion and, above all, as someone who feels this course very much his own. It shows in how he talks about Sentosa, in the memory he keeps of last year’s victory and in the message he hints at in the tournament preview: he hasn’t won yet in 2026, but he is convinced his game will return to form sooner rather than later.
And he doesn’t say it from anxiety, but from confidence. “I know that when I play my best golf, I can win on any kind of course,” he said this Tuesday in Singapore. It’s a powerful sentence. Very powerful. Because it comes from a player who last year dominated at times, who won five times and who now lives with a slightly slower start and sky-high expectations.
Niemann does not hide that the start to the season hasn’t been as bright as a year ago. He admits it naturally. But, far from dramatizing, he conveys the feeling of someone who knows exactly the ground he is standing on. “I have to stay in my lane, keep working on what I need to, keep following my process, and I know that if I keep doing the same, it’s only a matter of time,” he explained. Translated: no panic, no sudden U-turns and no underlying doubts.
The Chilean also returns to one of those places that trigger something special in him. He likes Sentosa far more than Hong Kong, bluntly. He even explained that the difference lies not so much in the course as in the greens. The ones in Hong Kong didn’t convince him at all, whereas here he feels much more at home. Ultimately, he returns to a setting where he reads the lines better, where he interprets putts better and where the course fits his eye. In golf, that is half the battle.
He also made clear what will be one of the week’s keys: play off the tee. Sentosa forces you to think, to position yourself, to handle different clubs off the tee and to play many demanding shots. That was one of his strengths last year and it’s where he wants to lean on again. If he adds comfort on the greens and good memories to that, it’s a potent combination.
Niemann also spoke about Jon Rahm and the rivalry the two have built in LIV Golf. He did not spare praise for the Spaniard, whom he considers one of the world’s best for the past decade, but he left a very interesting reflection: competing against someone like that forces him to be better. It pushes him. It demands more of him. And that, in a player like Niemann, is usually bad news for the rest when he finds his spark.
The key to everything, in any case, is in the head. Niemann knows that after a season like last year’s it’s impossible to escape expectations. But he also knows he cannot play worried about them. That’s why he repeated a very significant idea: put expectations to one side, play freely and enjoy. It may sound like a platitude, but in his case it feels much more like a roadmap than a mere slogan.
Because Niemann does not convey the feeling of being lost. Quite the opposite. His words are those of a player who feels close, who knows what he has in his hands and who returns to a course where he has been happy before. And when a player of his talent speaks like that, it’s worth listening.
Sentosa, after all, could be exactly the place where he really lights up again.
