Mito Pereira: My journey to the PGA TOUR

The path to the PGA TOUR isn’t linear, and it isn’t simple. Finding one word to describe my journey here seems nearly impossible; however, I can try with three: Never give up.

Before the pandemic struck in 2020, I had already earned enough points to secure my PGA TOUR card in a normal Korn Ferry Tour season, but the inevitable happened and we began all over again. Knowing that I was back to square one took its toll on me, especially on my game. That is when the power of a good support system kicked in.

A good friend of mine sat me down and gave me some of that tough love that everyone needs every now and then. He said that I was going to have to play well my entire life, and that I should take this “setback” as a new challenge. I had to win my way back again and give it my all moving forward. As simple as it sounds, that managed to flip the switch inside me and two more wins later, here I am, on my way to start my first full season on the PGA TOUR.

During the BMW Charity Pro-Am, all I was hoping for was to play four solid rounds of golf.

I had already won the week before, and the weight of earning my PGA TOUR card was off my shoulders. I was enjoying the way I was playing. Life was good. But the moment the winning putt dropped … it got even better.

Stepping onto the first tee at my first PGA TOUR event brought back the same jitters I felt at my very first golf tournament. Boy, had I missed them.

Playing on the PGA TOUR has been my dream ever since I was a kid, and being here, grateful as I am, I want more. I want to win; I want to stay competitive. I want to be among the best. And I think it’s safe to say that it’s a feeling we all share out here. As a TOUR player, you aim to enjoy the season while pushing yourself hard enough to up your game and win. Competitiveness drives us round by round, not only against each other, but against ourselves.

Sports are united by competitiveness; that’s why I like all of them so much. Trying to win and stay competitive with yourself pushes you every day so that there is always room for improvement. That is what makes you spend hours on the putting green or on the range, even though you know that your game will never be perfect. Trying to find the way to make a shot your own, to push yourself to drive the ball further than you did the day before, and the one before that. It’s that feeling—that relentlessness-- to continue improving that gets you where you want to be. In my case, that was the PGA TOUR.

Even with the year I had—three wins on the Korn Ferry Tour, two top 10s on the PGA TOUR—representing Chile in the Olympics became the cherry on top of one of the best years of my career so far. Tokyo was a full-circle moment, without a doubt.

When I was younger, two Chilean athletes, tennis players Fernando Gonzales and Nicolás Massú, achieved something incredible for Chile. They managed to unite the country during the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning the gold in both doubles and singles. Being in the Olympics this year with Joaco (Niemann), we felt that perhaps we could do something like that for Chile, especially in the times we are living, when we could all use a reason to smile. To see the response we got on social media, and know the joy we were able to bring to our country, felt like nothing we had experienced before.

One of my goals for this season is obvious: I want to win. But above that, I want to help grow the game both in Chile and Latin America. I’ve learned so much every step of the way that got me here, starting for PGA TOUR Latinoamerica—where I got my first big break by winning in 2016—to the Korn Ferry TOUR and now finally the PGA TOUR, the amount of Latino talent that is coursing through all of them is beyond inspiring. There has been an explosion of Latino talent in the last few years on TOUR and it feels great to be a part of this change. Just like us, I’m sure there are going to be even more players coming here in the near future. And that’s because of everything that Joaco, Abraham Ancer, Carlos Ortiz, Sebastián Munoz and many others have done. They are the living, breathing proof that Latino players can make it on TOUR and win.

That is why playing on the PGA TOUR means so much. Now there are two players from Chile on TOUR, but I know that in a few years there will be more of us out here. I am certain that Chile and the rest of Latin America are overflowing with talent. As long as we all play our part, it can lead to great things. I now have the privilege to call myself a PGA TOUR player. The work has paid off. The secret? Just three words: Never give up.