LIV’s financial destabilisation of the golf world has been underlined by an announcement from Mito Pereira that he will retire as a professional at the age of only 30.
Pereira, who came within a whisker of becoming Chile’s first major winner at the 2022 US PGA Championship, was relegated from the LIV tour four months ago. Set up for life with his earnings on the rebel circuit, he has opted to hang up his clubs and start a new life back home in Chile. Having won about £13million in his three seasons with LIV, he will be able to do so in some luxury.
“After a period of reflection, I have decided to bring my career as a professional golfer to an end,” Pereira said in a statement on his social media accounts. “This was not a decision made overnight, but one I have been thoughtfully considering for some time, waiting for the right moment to communicate it.
LIV has enabled Pereira to earn so much in three years that he has no need to carry on
JASON BUTLER/GETTY IMAGES
“I spent many years living away from home, in another country, countless weeks in hotels and airports. Now, the time has come to pause.
“Chile is my place in the world, and my family is my reason for being. Golf taught me resilience, how to navigate both good and difficult moments, and how to make discipline and goals a way of life. I believe I am well prepared for what lies ahead.”
After a successful first season on the LIV tour in 2023, when his combined earnings for individual and team events topped $7.4million (£5.5million), Pereira’s performances nosedived over the past two seasons. He was one of six players relegated from the tour in August, along with Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.
While Stenson decided to rejoin the DP World Tour next season, having settled fines owed for playing in LIV events, there was no such route back to the PGA Tour available for Pereira. The Americans have an outright ban on LIV defectors.
Pereira could have chosen to attempt to win back his LIV place at the circuit’s qualifying event — known as LIV Promotions — next month. Other relegated players, such as Anthony Kim and Andy Ogletree, have entered. However, with 87 players chasing two promotion spots at the Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, Florida, that represents a long shot.
Pereira, who has a wife and young son, insists he will begin “this new chapter feeling happy and at peace”
Pereira could instead have joined next year’s Asian Tour’s International Series — funded by LIV’s Saudi backers — which also carries with it two automatic places on the LIV tour, plus 25 more spots in the field for the 2027 qualifying event.
Evidently though, the prospect of battling it out for a backwater season around China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia for a player who had been basing himself in the Florida golf enclave of Jupiter Island did not appeal. Hence his shock announcement.
“I now begin a new chapter feeling happy, motivated and at peace, without urgency about what the future may bring. I simply want you to know that I am well and proud of what I accomplished in this sport,” he said.
It is a surprise development but one that shines a telling light on the world of modern professional golf. LIV’s arrival has enabled Pereira to earn so much in his short career that he has no need to carry on.
Pereira held a one-shot lead on the 72nd hole at the 2022 US PGA Championship, but hit a double bogey and missed out on a play-off
ROSS KINNAIRD/GETTY IMAGES
After his near-victory at Southern Hills three years ago, it might have been expected that the pursuit of a major would have lit his motivational fires. He held a one-shot lead on the 72nd hole, only to put his drive into the creek, record a double bogey and miss out on a play-off for the US PGA Championship, which was eventually won by Justin Thomas.
But the primary qualification route into golf’s big four events is effectively closed to him. The absence of world ranking points on the LIV tour means he has drifted outside the world’s top 1,500.
With the competitive fires dimming as his performances have worsened, the will to fight his way back to the summit of golf again, as he once did through the PGA Tour Latinoamerica and the Korn Ferry Tour, where he won three times, has evaporated.
It remains to be seen whether time away will change his outlook. When he gave up golf in his teens to enjoy other sports including football, tennis and dirt biking, he returned inside two years. Back then, though, he still had a living to earn. Now, thanks to LIV’s riches, he and his wife, Antonia, who welcomed their first child into the world last year, have no such concerns.
It could very well be that a player good enough to have come close to winning a major, and an Olympic medal in his sport — he finished in a tie for third place at the 2021 Games in Tokyo only to lose out in a play-off — really is done and dusted with golf at 30.
