Mito Pereira’s path to the PGA TOUR

The COVID-19 pandemic left players on the Korn Ferry Tour with just one path to the PGA TOUR, and it was a difficult one.

Players had to win three times to earn an immediate promotion.

Mito Pereira is the only player to traverse that trail to the TOUR. He will make his debut as a member at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Pereira earned his first Korn Ferry Tour victory nearly 18 months ago, shooting a final-round 64, including a 20-foot eagle putt on the final hole, to win the Country Club de Bogota Championship in February 2020. His win came before the COVID-19 pandemic forced professional sports to pause.

Pereira was the Korn Ferry Tour’s Regular Season Points leader when the season stopped. A PGA TOUR card was all but assured but now it would have to wait until 2021. His graduation came a few months early after back-to-back wins earlier this month gave him three wins in this extended Korn Ferry Tour season. He’s just the 12th player to win back-to-back KFT starts on that circuit and the 12th player to earn the three-win promotion.

Not only will he join countryman Joaquin Niemann on the PGA TOUR but also in Tokyo for next month’s Olympics. The Chilean team has a combined age of just 48 years old, giving the South American country two of the game’s rising stars.

Pereira, who’s finished in the top 10 in five of his last six starts, is just the second Latino player to earn the Korn Ferry Tour’s three-win promotion and the first player to do it since 2016.

"It is unbelievable, I still can’t process it," said Pereira during his press conference the Sunday of the BMW Charity Pro-Am. “It is a very tough road and not everyone makes it. I think that the PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, the Korn Ferry Tour, have very tough tournaments, there is a lot of competitiveness that prepares you to get to the PGA TOUR in the best possible shape.”

Pereira won his first pro tournament when he was a 17-years-old amateur, claiming the Chilean Professional Tour’s Abierto Internacional over professionals Nico Geyger and Cristian Leon. Pereira has three wins on Chile’s pro tour, as well as a win on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica.

“Golf is a super difficult sport, but I think the best thing it has is that everyone has a shot,” Pereira said. “Never stop practicing. Everyone has a chance, not like in other sports that perhaps reward the physique a lot; here with training and effort you can do anything.

“I had really bad years and now I just won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour. It is a sport that for the next 10, 20 years I will have to give my best. I think at one moment I flipped that switch and here we are, I'm going to the PGA TOUR in two weeks.”

Golf has taught Pereira resilience. It has also given him lifelong friendships. Niemann is one of those friends.

"I'm trying to practice and I can't because I have you here on TV," Niemann said in a congratulatory video he sent Mito from this year’s U.S. Open. "Congratulations for the back-to-back wins, the third of the season. ... Can’t wait to see you here soon for practice rounds, playing together and doing what we’ve been doing since we were kids.”

Niemann and Pereira continue the line of Chilean players who led the way for them. Niemann is the first Chilean to win on the PGA TOUR and play in the Presidents Cup.

“It started with Felipe (Aguilar), with Mark (Tullo), with (Benjamin) Alvarado, with many players, and what Joaco has done is the icing on the cake,” Pereira said. “It has grown a lot.”

A story that draws a smile to Pereira's face involves fate, Niemann and his trophy from his REX Hospital Open win last month.

“I sent the trophy to his house in Jupiter. I told him on Tuesday or Monday. And he said, ‘Ya compadre, but I won’t accept many more things from you; I’ll take only one more trophy.’” Pereira won again the following week.

Be it a joke, warning or premonition, it seems that Pereira took that seriously, since from now on the trophies he collects will go to the display at his own home as a member of the PGA TOUR.