US Open contender Joaquin Niemann’s disastrous opening round on Shinnecock’s 6th hole was the stuff of nightmares. Little did we know it would get worse.
After a hole-in-one collapse from Thursday night into Friday morning, Niemann made matters worse with “gross misconduct.” At least that’s how US Open tournament officials described it Friday after Niemann was handed a two-stroke penalty for a club-throwing incident.
Here’s what we know.
Joaquin Niemann hit a 2-putt penalty for the US Open club
Niemann’s sentence must be viewed in context. And that context may haunt the promising professional for years to come.
In the final hour before play was suspended due to darkness on Thursday night, Niemann was starting to get into the groove. He faced two first bogeys with two birdies on the second nine, including the par-5 5th.
As the sun set, Niemann’s team reached Shinnecock’s par on the 4th 6th hole, and it all started to go wrong for the eight-time LIV winner. He hit his first two shots OB and sent his fifth shot into the traditional.
When the horn sounded to end the night, Niemann was sitting 6 in the middle of the fairway. His continued downfall will have to wait for the morning.
After what may have been a decent night’s sleep, Niemann returned to the 6th hole on Friday at 6:35 am ET. He failed to reach the green on his seventh shot and ended up with a tournament-changing quintuple-bogey 9.
But as of Friday at 8:30 am ET, that 9 has become 11, raising his total from 76 to 78.
Meanwhile, US Open officials announced in a press release that Niemann was charged with two shots for swinging the club at some point in his 6th hole. The incident, the USGA said, was deemed “gross misconduct.”
“Joaquin Niemann was assessed two penalty strokes for swinging a club on the 6th hole in the 1st round,” read a statement from the US Open. “This action was determined to be gross misconduct under Rule 1.2b.”
Rule 1.2b, which was part of a raft of rule changes enacted in 2019, states that a tournament “may set its standards of player conduct through a Code of Conduct adopted as Local Law,” and that “the Code may include penalties for violations of its standards, such as a stroke penalty and or a general fine.”
In addition, the law states that tournaments may disqualify competitors “for gross misconduct by failing to meet the standards of the Code.”
That’s important to note because while the announcement about Niemann’s penalty used the phrase “gross misconduct,” Niemann was assessed a standard penalty (two shots), instead of a suspension.
At the time of the announcement, it was unclear whether Niemann’s club swing incident occurred Thursday night while playing the 6th hole, or Friday morning when he returned to finish the hole. But Gabby Herzig the New York Times got more details later Friday morning from a US Open volunteer at Shinneock Hills.
In a post on X, Herzig reported that the club throwing happened Thursday night following his two OB shots. When he was denied clearance from the fire ants after his third tee shot, Niemann reportedly kicked the white flag marking his ball and “proceeded to cut his iron from the fescue area about 50 yards to the right field edge.”
In the end, Niemann’s 11th on the 6th sent his score from even to eight over par, extinguishing any hope of winning his first major title at the 2026 US Open.
