Mito Pereira quit golf for two years. Now he’s leading the PGA Championship

TULSA, Okla. – Mito Pereira’s journey to the 54-hole lead at the 104^th PGA Championship took an interesting detour during his teen years.

As a 14-year-old, the native of Santiago, Chile, moved to Florida to attend IMG Academy. He was considered a promising star after finishing runner-up at the Boys 10-11 division at the 2006 Optimist International Junior Golf Championship and winning the 12-13 division of the same tournament in 2008. But after six months at IMG Academy, Pereira quit golf for two years.

“I got tired off it,” he said in a February interview with Golfweek. “I quit and just played other sports for a while – dirt bike, soccer and tennis. One day, I wanted to play golf again and I came back. It’s that simple.

“I just needed that break. It was good to have at that age. I knew I was going to play golf but not at that time.”

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Asked on Friday after shooting 64 at the PGA Championship, what he would have said if somebody said to him at the time that he quit the game that he’d be contending in a major championship, Pereira answered, “That you’re crazy.”

“No, I mean, I took the two years off but when I came back I just – I knew I could do it, I knew I could get to here, and I just kept the confidence, and obviously there were some up and downs but really happy to be here,” he added.

Mito Pereira looks on during the third round of the 2022 NCAA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

Once Pereira recommitted himself to golf, he won his first professional tournament in Chile as a 17-year-old amateur. He played for one season at Texas Tech, finishing eighth in the Big 12 conference championship at Southern Hills in 2015, before turning pro.

His road to the PGA Tour included stops on PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Korn Ferry Tour before earning a battlefield promotion with three victories during the 2020-21 season. Upon making his PGA Tour debut this season in Napa at the Fortinet Championship, he said, “I think everybody wants to play here. Since I was probably 4 years old, 5 years old I’ve wanted to play here. And I’m here right now and played pretty well, so I’m like, it’s not like real, you know? I’m here, but you always get here and you want more and I want to win. You know, it’s life, everybody wants more, but I’m pretty happy here.”

On Sunday, Pereira carries a three-stroke advantage into the final round of the PGA and a chance to claim that first win he covets. It’s quite a long ways from quitting the game for two years as a teen.

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