He won the most tournaments in LIV Golf’s short history. But Joaquin Niemann’s latest comments have raised big questions over his future with the league…

With the deadline looming for LIV Golf to sign up the players required to salvage its future, one of the league’s most successful players has raised further doubts about his own participation.

Chilean Joaquin Niemann lifted his national open for the very first time on Sunday, with birdies on his final two holes at Club de Golf Las Brisas de Chicureo enough to win by four shots. Niemann bounced back from a 1-over 73 on Friday with a third-round 64 and then closed out his third victory of the season with a 67 on Sunday.

But Niemann’s victory in Chile was preceded by some intriguing comments to local media about his LIV future. The 27-year-old, who has nine individual titles and, despite not topping the overall money table, has arguably been LIV’s strongest player, is considering whether to commit to the unknown with LIV or seek a pathway back to the traditional circuits.

“The truth is, I’m still deciding what to do,” he admitted in an interview translated from La Tecera. “Whether I want to stay and believe in what’s happening in the league or go play more in Europe and from there try to get on the PGA Tour. Those are my two options in the end. I’ll have to make a decision in a couple of weeks.”

Indeed, the time of reckoning is soon upon us for LIV players.

LIV’s bankruptcy filings show that October 13 could be the key date. The league’s future hinges on a deal with private equity firm BC Partners with which a term sheet has been signed for a potential $300 million in total financing.

That term sheet is listed in the documents as a “Restructuring Support Agreement” and, crucially there are several clauses, or “key milestones”, that must be met for the transaction to take place. These milestones need to have been met within 35 days of the bankruptcy petition being filed on September 8 to satisfy their prospective investor’s demands.

The demands include “requisite number of players” joining the agreement before the deadline. That is described as: “The requisite players means players holding eligible player claims… that equal or exceed (a) 2/3 in amount and (b) 1/2 in number of such eligible player claims held by all players.”

Essentially, this means half the players who have claims against LIV need to have signed up for the reimagined LIV 2.0 before the mid-October deadline. And the total value of the claims connected to the committed players must at least match two-thirds of the collective player claims. Niemann is one of the biggest claimaints on LIV’s bankruptcy filing, owed around $1.3m.

LIV sources suggest they are still confident they will secure the “critical mass” of players required to make ‘LIV 2.0’ possible and are aiming to placate uncertain stars by offering them equity in the reimagined league.

However, that of course, would still be a big leap into the unknown and Niemann is wary of such a huge decision at what seems a decisive juncture in his career. He is a one-time winner on the PGA Tour, but an immediate return is not forthcoming with Ponte Vedra unlikely to create another contrived program like the one which allowed Brooks Koepka such a smooth transition back across the divide.

“I think both options have very positive aspects – being part of a league, owning a percentage of the league,” Niemann said. “Knowing that it’s something that I think could take a couple of years, I don’t know if that’s something I want to take on at this stage of my career.

“So those are questions I have to ask myself and then make a decision. There are still things that need to happen before I can make a decision like that 100 percent and tell you, ‘I’m going to do this or I’m going to do that.’ I still can’t make a decision.”

Regardless of his next move, Niemann clearly had faith in LIV’s model before the Saudi Public Investment Fund pulled the plug on its backing in April.

He added: “The truth is, [the PIF exit] was somewhat predictable, because obviously around the world, putting golf aside, there’s everything that’s going on, the wars. Saudi Arabia has been somewhat affected, and while the PIF is one of the most powerful investment funds in the world, there’s been that uncertainty about what’s going to happen outside of golf.

“And knowing that golf is a tremendous expense for them, even though LIV was taking more shape, it still needed a lot of capital to be injected to be able to compete with the PGA Tour.

“In the end, there are new institutions financing the LIV concept. Because the idea is incredible – to be able to reach other tournaments around the world, it’s a different kind of golf product.”