SINGAPORE – A good part of Joaquin Niemann’s most recent off-season was spent in Australia and Dubai, but the Chilean was not there for a holiday.

Instead, the 25-year-old LIV golfer was playing several DP World Tour events as he looked to chalk up ranking points in his bid to play the Majors.

Winning a Major has been his childhood dream and while he is currently producing some of the best golf of his career, he finds himself in a tricky predicament.

Since joining LIV Golf in 2022, his path to the Majors has become complicated as players from the Saudi-backed breakaway series do not receive Official World Golf Ranking points.

But that has not deterred Niemann, who won individual titles at the LIV events in Mayakoba and Jeddah this season.

“Since I started playing golf, my dream was to be winning Majors,” he told The Straits Times in an interview ahead of the LIV Golf Singapore event in Sentosa from May 3 to 5.

“I’ve always had that dream, but I feel now it’s even bigger knowing that they took the Majors away from me for a little bit.

“Knowing that made me realise how much I want to win a Major. Going to LIV helped me realise and see that and work harder to get to the Majors because I know that if I’m in, I have a chance to win.”

So at the end of 2023, Niemann headed to Queensland to play in the Australian PGA Championship, then to Sydney where he won the Australian Open.

He is now eligible for three of the four Majors in 2024, having received special invites to April’s Masters, where he finished tied-22nd, and the May 16-19 PGA Championship.

His Australian Open win also earned him a ticket to the July 18-21 British Open.

His world ranking has slipped from 18th to 85th since switching to LIV, but he is eighth in the Data Golf rankings, which rate golfers from all tours but does not contribute towards qualification for the Majors.

Niemann’s ambition was evident early on. He caught the golf bug as a young boy after his father gifted him plastic clubs when he was two.

His parents separated when Niemann was in the eighth grade. Despite being closer to his mum and her extended family, he followed his father to Santiago to further his golfing ambition.

He had a stellar amateur career, winning six events on the Chilean Tour and rising to the top of the world amateur rankings in 2017.

Niemann remained there for 44 weeks until he turned professional the following year.

In 2019, he became the first PGA Tour winner from Chile after emerging victorious at the Greenbrier Classic, before taking home the Genesis Invitational trophy in 2022.

With him and fellow Chilean LIV golfer Mito Pereira racking up exploits on the international stage, Niemann hopes to elevate the game back home.

He said: “Chile doesn’t have many golf courses or players. It is growing now, big time…

“Golf is pretty popular in Chile right now, knowing me and Mito are having results.

“Now it’s kind of changing a little bit, and there’s a little bit of responsibility for us to take golf to the next level in Chile.”

Besides the Majors, Niemann is also eyeing another accolade – an Olympic gold at the Paris Games.

At the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Niemann came in tied-10th, four strokes behind champion Xander Schauffele.

He said: “There aren’t many athletes who have a chance to win a gold medal.

“If we play well and everything goes well, we can win a gold medal which I think gives a lot of expectation and hope for Chile to have a gold medal, which for me would be a dream.”