Niemann grabs early lead at Tournament of Champions

Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, riding the confidence-boost of a Presidents Cup appearance, fired seven birdies in a seven-under par 66 on Thursday to take a one-shot first-round lead in the US PGA Tour Tournament of Champions.

“I think the Presidents Cup was huge for me, for my career, for my future,” Niemann said. “I think during that week I learned a lot, I was with the best players in the world, I was teammates with Adam Scott. I talked a lot with them. It was an unbelievable week.”

Niemann showed plenty of confidence on the par-73 Plantation course at Kapalua, Hawaii.

He rolled in a 31-foot birdie putt for his first birdie of the day at the fourth, and his remaining six birdies were all from within 11 feet.

He missed just one green in regulation, and got up and down for par to head into the second round with a one-shot lead over world number four Justin Thomas.

Thomas also played without a bogey, grabbing five of his six birdies on the back nine to take sole possession of second place on 67. Americans Matt Kuchar and Rickie Fowler shared third on 68, with defending champion Xander Schauffele heading a group of five players on 69.

Meanwhile, at a driving range just outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja is Iyene Essien, just 13, who is dreaming of delivering her country’s first gold medal for golf at the 2022 Summer Youth Olympics.

Essien’s golf medals already outnumber her 13 years of age, and she has competed on three continents. Nigeria’s top junior player says: “In this game you compete against yourself and not other players, which is very exciting,” adding that anything that goes wrong “is still your mistake, you are the one playing so you cannot blame your caddy or anyone for the mistake you made.”

Her journey began when she saw a young white boy playing at the IBB International Golf and Country Club in Abuja. Her father saw her excitement and quickly arranged to get her on the course.

“He asked me if I wanted to play and I said yes, so he bought me clubs and got me a golf professional to train me,” she said — the same man who was training the white boy.

Her first medal came quickly, at the age of five. She now has 17 medals and has represented Nigeria 11 times at tournaments in Africa, Europe and the United States.

Agencies