Abraham Ancer, Mexican star of LIV: “Niemann and Mito Pereira are two characters that a lot of children watch”

Abraham Ancer began his training at the Prince Of Wales Country Club at 9:50 a.m. this Tuesday morning. He played nine holes, spent a lot of time practicing in the putting area, walked the other nine and finally hit a few shots simulating tee shots from the tee. It took about four hours of preparation, which ended with a conversation with El Deportivo.

There, the former 11th in the world and owner of a victory on the PGA circuit (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2021), gives details of his relationship with Joaquín Niemann and Mito Pereira, whom he faces in the LIV Golf events, a circuit to which Ancer He joined in 2022. He also talks about the expansion of the discipline in Latin America and his 2023, where he could not find the regularity he was looking for.

You will have many LIV teammates as rivals in Santiago 2023. What is the relationship between Latinos within this new circuit?

We got along really well. Me with Carlos (Ortiz) obviously since we were very young in Mexico, but also with Joaco (Niemann), Mito (Pereira) and Juan Sebastián Muñoz we get along incredibly well. They’re great guys and great players too, so the competition is great, we always want to improve each other and beat each other. This has helped us improve a lot overall.

How would you define Joaquín Niemann and Mito Pereira?

Athletically, there’s no aspect they’re bad at, they play pretty well, but I think the biggest thing they have is that they work really hard. The results did not arrive alone. They work, they are quite disciplined, they practice too much and the fruits show. They do things very well, they have a great team around them. Analyzing their game, they hit very hard, quite straight. They have all the shots, good short game.

Do you see them as references for the continent?

Yeah, I feel like those are definitely two characters that a lot of kids look up to. Children aspire to get where they are and I believe this not only in Chile, but throughout Latin America.

Mexico is experiencing a boom similar to that of Chile in golf, how do you see it?

It’s something incredible. Having the LIV in Mayacoba, the PGA Tour in Los Cabos, the Latin American PGA tournaments have helped see a lot of kids very interested in the sport that maybe hasn’t been seen. Before it was pure football, boxing or baseball, but now he talks a lot more about golf.

You’ve had a year of ups and downs in LIV, are you coming to take revenge for these Pan American Games?

It was a pretty strange season personally. I started the year with a victory at the Jeddah tournament, which wasn’t from LIV, but had a the fields virtually identical and I arrived with high expectations. Things didn’t go quickly as planned and the results were quite frustrating throughout the season. Towards the end I started playing pretty solidly, but it was a little late in the season. Not every year will be great, but this was a year where I learned a lot. I’ve been implementing a lot of things lately and I hope it all helps this week.

Is it very complex to succeed?

Sometimes you think you’ve done things really well and you’re going to see the results but they’re not there. Golf is something that brings you back down to earth pretty quickly. That’s what I like, the challenge of sometimes feeling like you have everything under control and going out onto the field without controlling anything. That’s the beauty of this sport, it’s impossible to decipher and I think I love it. We did things pretty well personally and I really hope to see the results this week.

Is all the talk about LIV, not knowing if you’ll get points for ranking, etc.? could have affected your performance?

Speaking of myself, I feel no. It was just a year where I had to discover new areas, where I had a different routine than what I had been used to for seven or eight years, but I like changes, I like new things and I’m not afraid to take on something like that. . After a few years in LIV, I understand better how to deal with everything surrounding the league and I like it. I also really like the team format.

Have people’s opinions of LIV changed? A year ago, they were called traitors…

More than anything, it’s the media that spreads a lot of misinformation and I think that’s what sells. Obviously what generates clicks sells is controversy, but the truth is that when I was playing in the majors, I saw all the PGA players and everything seemed so normal. Maybe I’m not a very controversial person, but also when we go to other countries with LIV, it’s been impressive. In Australia there was an incredible atmosphere during the tournament and in the United States we are seeing the same thing. People are understanding when they go to a tournament and tell you that they like it, that they want to come back.