Highlights
Joaquin Niemann was as shocked as anyone after pulling off perhaps the PGA Tour's wildest birdie of the year
Joaquin Niemann averaged more than four birdies per round on the PGA Tour last season so the young star is used to putting up red numbers. But we guarantee he's never made one quite like the one he made on the first hole of Friday's second round at the CJ Cup.
How do we know that for sure? Well, his stunned reaction was nearly as good as the birdie itself.
Niemann's opening drive of the second round went way, way right on The Summit Club's 385-yard par 4. So far right, in fact, that the 22-year-old needed to take an unplayable lie penalty from the desert and onto another hole's fairway. From there, though? Well, have a look:
Yep, it really went in. Not a bad way to start your round, huh? It's possible we won't see a wilder birdie on tour for the rest of the season.
Playing partners Charley Hoffman and Jason Day were shocked as well. In this funny clip from moments later, Hoffman has to ask what score Niemann made on the hole because he had no clue.
But Niemann knew. Well, after thinking about it for a second.
"I couldn't see anything," he says in the video. "Nothing, nothing, nothing."
No matter, Joaquin. Now it looks just like any other red number on the scorecard.