Mito Pereira makes Presidents Cup debut with agonizing defeat

Mito Pereira made his Presidents Cup debut, which takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina. After his great season at the PGA, the Chilean obtained a place in the prestigious tournament for the first time, where Joaquín Niemann had also been selected. However, the Talagan man, who competed in 2019, was left out after deciding to join the controversial LIV Golf.

In this way, the native of Pirque became the only national in the competition among the 12 members of the Rest of the World team that faces the United States, a country that has won 11 of the 13 editions. Thus, on the first day, the pupil of Eduardo Miquel was lined up by captain Trevor Immelman with the Canadian Taylor Pendrith to face, in modality quartet (alternating shots), hosts Tony Finau and Max Homa. The duel was one of five for the day. They fell on the last hole and the series is led by the United States 4-1.

The move started on hole 2, where the first drop-offs for the locals occurred. Pendrith failed in the green and the international duo were at a disadvantage by landing five hits (one more than normal on the pitch) while his rivals did it in just three moves.

Everything was even again at the next flag, where Mito executed the last shot and Homa missed his. However, this balance was short-lived, as holes four and six went to the Americans. It was only in the eighth grade that the Chilean-Canadian duo could count on and once again, thanks to the precision of Pereira in the last meters, which triggered the madness of the Chileans present among the 40,000 people who arrived on the scene.

The second part of the course didn’t have much movement until the 13th hole, where the Chilean once again stood out to get a birds, while their rivals closed wide, which equalized and added emotion to the result. The the pircano showed enough solidity, but not his partner, who repeatedly left him in an awkward position and with the pressure to keep the flag tied and the encouragement from the public to his home players.

This, yes, the Canadian was notable for making a birds at minute 16 after a bad start from Pereira and keep the holeshot even as the Americans were already celebrating the victory. In the 17th, the two combinations maintained their solidity, so that the emotion reached the final flag.

as if it were a déjà vu of the PGA Championship, the Chilean had a bad start on the 18th, which was left raw with the trees in front. Pendrith managed to get the ball out of there, although it stayed in the bunker. So, the Chilean failed and in the end the Canadian couldn’t introduce him, sealing the local victory.

“A bitter taste, because we played better than them in most rounds. Ending up losing is never good, but I’m happy with the way we did and the way we did. fought. It’s different from a normal league, you feel a bit more energy in the environment, but I really think we were able to do very well and I felt very good playing inside,” Mito said. Pereira to ESPN, after his participation.

A) Yes, the only victory of the day for the international team was Si Woo Kim and Cam Davis against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns.

The competition continues this Friday with five clashes, where Mito will team up with South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout against Kevin Kisner and Cameron Young, in the category of four balls (considered the best ball of the pair) pattern that will be repeated on Saturday afternoon, while on the morning of that day it will be done by quartet. While Sunday will take place the individual duels that will define the champion. For it, the winner must reach 15.5 points out of the 30 that the duels distribute (one for each series).