We know that PGA Tour golfers aren’t exactly fans of those who took the money to join LIV Golf, but Justin Thomas took it a step further with his comments made during the 2023 PGA Champions dinner, thanks to footage from Season 2 of Netflix’s Full Swing.
Thomas raised a glass during the dinner and “personally wanted to have a cheers to Mito Pereira, because this would not happen without him.”
Next week, the golf world heads to Rochester, N.Y., for the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Justin Thomas is the defending champion, as he took down Will Zalatoris in a three-hole playoff last year to claim his second major championship and second Wanamaker trophy.
His LIV Golf colleagues Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira both had a different approach.
“Yeah, I watched it. The first one I watched was episode 7, and then I started the other ones,” said Pereira, referencing his episode, Golf is Hard. “I think it turned out really good. Obviously Joaquin and I were in that episode, and it really showed how we are off the course and on the course. Obviously they showed a lot of the PGA Championship, so that wasn’t great, but it’s good for everybody to watch it.”
In just his second major championship appearance at last year’s PGA Championship, Pereira had a one-shot lead on the final hole but hit his drive into the water and ultimately made double bogey to miss out on a playoff. He wound up finishing T-3.
“Actually, PGA Championship has been probably eight months, so I’m kind of over that,” he said of how difficult it was to watch the footage again. “I just watch it as — just really watched it and didn’t really feel the same that I felt before.”
“I watched it. It was pretty good. Same as Mito, I watched that episode first. Yeah, it was good. It brought back a lot of memories, good memories,” added Niemann. “It also brought a lot of tough memories, just watching Mito — I mean, for us being outside the golf course, it’s just — I think you feel more pressure being outside.
“I’m also really proud the way that Mito took it, like a learning experience,” he continued. “I think watching it over and over again and people talking about it, I think it’s good to go over it and see what went wrong, what went good, and just stay positive that week like he took it.”
Both players are members of Torque GC, captained by Niemann, which also includes Sebastian Munoz and David Puig, who played for three different teams in 2022. Pereira and Sebastian Munoz will make their LIV debuts this week.
“I’m really happy having Mito and Sebastian just sign after we’ve been together probably three, four years on Tour,” Niemann said of his new teammates. “I think it’s going to be really, really fun. I think the practice rounds are being really competitive, the four of us.”
“It’s been exciting. It’s felt like school these last couple days with the shoots, having everyone do pictures. It’s feeling good. It’s feeling new, fresh,” Munoz said of his first impressions of LIV. “As these guys said, you know, like we used to kind of team up in the events before, stay in the same house. So it’s kind of like the same concept. See each other, compete with each other, train with each other, and just perform.”
The LIV Golf League is hosting its 2023 season opener this week on Mexico’s Riviera Maya at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon Golf Course, Feb. 24-26.
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The rosters are slowly but surely becoming official for the 2023 LIV Golf League.
The first two in the next crop of players to leave the PGA Tour for the LIV Golf League are now official.
On Wednesday the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund revealed the rosters of four teams and confirmed previous reports that Mito Pereira and Sebastian Munoz would be joining the league. Both players will join David Puig on Joaquin Niemann’s Torque GC.
Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC also got a shake up with the addition of Matthew Wolff to the roster alongside Jason Kokrak and Chase Koepka.
The Majesticks, co-captained by Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter, remain unchanged from 2022 with Lee Westwood and Sam Horsfield completing the team.
Just days after the 4 Aces GC won the team championship, it was reported they had already made a move to add Peter Uihlein alongside captain Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Pat Perez. That move is now official as Uihlein replaces Talor Gooch.
Here’s the roster release schedule for the rest of the week (captains in parentheses):
Friday: HyFlyers GC (Phil Mickelson), Iron Heads GC (Kevin Na), Ripper GC (Cam Smith) and Stinger GC (Louis Oosthuizen).
Broadcast plans
Earlier this week the league also announced its television plans after signing a TV deal with the CW Network last month. LIV will be available in every U.S. market in 2022 across CW affiliates, as well as Nexstar owned and operated stations. Second- and third-round coverage on Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast from 1-6 p.m. ET for all 14 events. Opening rounds on Friday will only be available on the CW app. If fans want to watch the live action when LIV tees it up in time zones opposite the states – Australia, Singapore or Saudi Arabia, for example – live coverage will be available on the app.
The LIV Golf League will begin its 14-event second season next week at Mayakoba’s El Camaleón Golf Course on the Riviera Maya, Feb. 24-26.
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Pereira’s good friend and countryman Joaquin Niemann is already part of the league.
According to The Telegraph, Mito Pereira, who fell short at the PGA Championship this past year after a wayward tee shot on the 72nd hole, is expected to join the LIV Golf League in 2023. Pereira will join his good friend and Chilean countryman, Joaquin Niemann.
LIV Golf has been quiet since its inaugural season ended with a team championship in Miami, although sometimes no news is bad news. It’s rumored several high-ranking members of the executive staff have recently left, including Chief Operating Officer Atul Khosla.
In three Tour starts this season, Pereira made every weekend with a best finish of T-4 at the Shriners. He’s currently ranked 44th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
It was in 2017 that the ex-Stanford golfer “packed up everything I owned” and moved to Las Vegas.
LAS VEGAS — TPC Summerlin opened in 1991 and has been the sole location for the PGA Tour’s Vegas stop since 2008. The private course closed in April of this year for a massive re-sodding of all the tee boxes, fairways and greens.
It stayed closed till Monday of tournament week for the Shriners Children’s Open and not a ball was struck for five months, according to tournament director Patrick Lindsey, until Harry Hall on the 1st hole and Maverick McNealy on the 10th sent their shots flying early that morning.
“I wanted to be the first guy out at least on one of the nines and take the first divot, so I was here at 6:30 ready to tee off,” said McNealy, who has lived in the area since 2017.
He grew up in Northern California and played his college golf at Stanford. Five years ago, when he first played in Vegas, he decided he needed a change of address.
“Sam Ryder, he and I on the 1st hole [today], we were talking about the first time we played together five years ago. It was 2017 when we played this tournament. We were paired together. It felt like yesterday, but it also feels like forever ago,” McNealy said. “That was the week that I packed up everything I owned in my mom’s old Ford Explorer and drove to Las Vegas and moved here.”
He wasted no time fitting in to his new surroundings.
“I’ve been a proud resident for five years, a hockey fan and lucky to get to play a golf course like this, TPC Summerlin. Right next door, TPC Las Vegas, The Summit, Shadow Creek. There’s a lot of great golf courses out here.”
On Thursday, McNealy, who estimated he’s played TPC Summerlin as many as 150 times, shot a bogey-free, 7-under 64 to start his week. It’s his lowest tournament round in 11 outings at the Shriners.
Going low is the name of the game in golf and that’s especially true at a course that yields a lot of birdies. Avoiding bogey is also key, as golfers can’t afford to go backwards on this fast track.
Of the 180 holes played by the top 10 on the leaderboard of early-wave golfers Thursday, there were only five bogeys recorded.
Scenic views at the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. (Photo: Michael Owens/Getty Images)
And if birdies are good, eagles are great. Tom Hoge had two of them on his way to posting an 8-under 63 to take the outright clubhouse lead. It’s the second time he’s had two eagles in the same round. On Thursday, he made eagle two different ways, first holing out from 109 yards with a 52-degree wedge on No. 7, then pouring in a 30-foot putt on No. 16.
“It’s always nice to hole a wedge shot like that because it’s been a while since I’ve done it,” Hoge said. “Shoot, I’m trying to think of the last. I can’t even remember.”
It’s the ninth 18-hole lead for Hoge in his career.
Tied with McNealy in second at 7 under is Si Woo Kim, who had one of those five bogeys but he also tacked on eight birdies.
Kim was grouped with Presidents Cup teammate Tom Kim and Presidents Cup rival Max Homa. The U.S. vs. Internationals battle was a frequent topic of discussion for the group for more than four hours Thursday.
“We still have good memories there,” Si Woo Kim said. “We still talk about the Presidents Cup, like some holes. Then I finish a hole, and Tom came over on 18 and I said, ‘If you make that one, I got to ask you to go throw the hat like the last hole Saturday,'” he quipped.
Tom Kim is also in the mix at the Shriners. He, too, shot a bogey-free round of 6-under 65. Defending champ Sungjae Im, Sam Ryder, Keith Mitchell, Will Gordon, Thomas Detry and Tyler Duncan also all posted 65s.
For McNealy, having a home-course advantage and a strong cheering section can only help.
“It’s a really fun week because I have probably 15 to 20 people out watching on a given day. If I get to the weekend, it will be a big crowd,” he said.
And there are no second thoughts about his move to Vegas.
“It’s been awesome. My three brothers now live with me. We’re all living in the same house together. Joseph Bramlett lives with me. He’s also on Tour. And my parents are 15 minutes down the street. Really put my roots down here.”
Other scores of note on Thursday include Jason Day (5-under 66), Max Homa and Patrick Cantlay (4-under 67), Gary Woodland (3-under 68) and Rickie Fowler (1-under 70).
The first round was suspended due to darkness at 6:29 p.m. local time (9:39 p.m. ET) with three golfers still on the course, all of them on their last hole: Scott Harrington and Philip Knowles on No. 9, Eric Cole on No. 18.
Here’s a look at the International Team heading to Charlotte.
It’s time for the 2022 Presidents Cup.
The competition will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina at Quail Hollow Club. The course is a regular stop on the PGA Tour, hosting the Wells Fargo Championship, as well as the 2017 PGA Championship.
Now, some of the best players from around the world, Europe excluded, will come together and look to win on American soil for the first time in the event’s history.
Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, is the captain for the International squad, and he has four assistant captains: K.J. Choi, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas and Mike Weir.
Here’s a look at the 12 players representing the International team in the 2022 Presidents Cup:
At the conclusion of the Tour Championship, expect the next wave of LIV Golf announcements to come quickly.
Cameron Smith, who has long been rumored to be heading to the Saudi-backed, Greg Norman-led series, is among at least five other players who will tee it up at LIV Golf’s fourth event in Boston next week, according to reports from Sports Illustrated and Golf Channel. Smith declined to comment on his departure at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and Niemann told Golf Channel on Friday he had yet to make up his mind.
Joining Smith and Niemann will be Marc Leishman, Cameron Tringale, Harold Varner III and Anirban Lahiri, according to the reports. Golf Channel reported Mito Pereira is also heading to LIV Golf, but SI said Pereira wasn’t going to play in next week’s event.
Smith, Niemann and Pereira are all automatic qualifiers at the Presidents Cup for the International Team, but if they were to join the breakaway series, they would all vacate their spots and be suspended from the PGA Tour.
The Presidents Cup is set for next month at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Both Smith and Niemann are playing in the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta this weekend.
Eight players have qualified for next month’s event at Quail Hollow.
The International Team for the 2022 Presidents Cup is starting to take shape.
The qualification period for captain Trevor Immelman’s squad wrapped up at the end of the 2022 BMW Championship, with the top eight players on the points list earning a spot on the team for the biennial event against the United States to be held Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In a recent Q&A with Golfweek, Immelman said the players who have left for LIV Golf and are currently unable to play in the event have “hurt us immensely,” and expanded on the costly loses of Louis Oosthuizen and Abraham Ancer, saying “We’ve lost two guys that were absolutely going to be there at Quail Hollow.”
Immelman will announce his four captain’s picks at a later date.
The Presidents Cup is a match play event with 30 total matches, comprised of a 12-person U.S. Team and 12-person International Team. The U.S. leads 11-1-1.
Let’s take a look at the eight internationals who qualified.
It’s hard to say how you would handle missing out on $150,000 if you haven’t been in those shoes. So there’s probably a thing or two be learned from how a Twitter user named Rufus is handling his bad beat on the PGA Championship.
On Friday, Rufus bet $500 on the relative unknown Mito Pereira to win the tournament at +30000 odds, for a payout of $150,000. Things were headed in the right direction for Rufus until Pereira blew his one stroke lead on the final hole Sunday with a double-bogey.
Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris passed him on the leaderboard to force a playoff, Thomas won and celebrated by hitting the dab, and Rufus — who didn’t hedge — was left holding the bag.
But instead of sulking over the earnings that were so so close, the self-described professional sports bettor got incredibly philosophical. We got to see on Twitter how he processed the admittedly painful loss, and here are some of the lessons he shared from it.
