PGA Tour rookie Mito Pereira blows shot at winning first major with double bogey on 18

TULSA, Okla. — As Mito Pereira stood inside the interview house in a tent at Southern Hills Nation Membership on Sunday, TVs to his left and correct confirmed Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris preparing for a playoff inside the 104th PGA Championship.

After Pereira answered a number of questions, any individual had adequate sense to indicate the TVs off.

Decrease than half an hour earlier, Pereira stood on the tee area of the 18th hole holding a 1-shot lead over Thomas and Zalatoris. Had Pereira carded a par on the final word hole, he would have become the first man from Chile to win a critical championship and the first PGA Tour rookie to win one in 11 years.

Instead, Pereira pushed his tee shot proper right into a creek on the proper side of the golf inexperienced. After taking a drop and a 1-shot penalty, he blasted his technique shot over the inexperienced. He nonetheless had a possibility to make the playoff if he might get up and down. His chip shot rolled off the inexperienced. He needed two putts from there and made a double-bogey 6. He accomplished tied for third at 4 under.

Pereira, 27, entered the final word spherical at 9 under and had a 3-shot lead. He shot 5-over 75 on Sunday.

“Clearly, sad to be proper right here and by no means inside the playoff, not make par, merely straight win,” Pereira talked about. “On 18, I wasn’t even desirous concerning the water. I merely wished to position it in play, and I suppose I aimed too far correct. I merely hit inside the water.

“I indicate, I need I’ll do it as soon as extra.”

In accordance with ESPN Stats & Knowledge evaluation, Pereira is the third participant over the earlier 20 years to double-bogey the 72nd hole in a critical and finish 1 shot out of a playoff. Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie every did it on the 72nd hole of the 2006 U.S. Open.

Pereira, who’s a centesimal inside the Official World Golf Ranking, talked about he made the similar swing on No. 18 that he had the day sooner than, when he blasted his drive down the middle. He was attempting to hit a low, arduous decrease nonetheless didn’t adjust to via like a standard swing.

“I was feeling the similar,” Pereira talked about. “I wasn’t like really utterly totally different. It was like that each in the future. I indicate, I believed I was nervous the first day. Then I believed I was nervous the second day. Then I believed I was nervous on the third day. Nevertheless the fourth day was horrible. I indicate, [Sunday] morning was highly effective.”

Pereira barely missed a 12½-foot birdie putt on the par-4 seventeenth hole that may have given him a 2-shot cushion.

Whatever the crushing defeat, Pereira hopes his breakthrough effectivity in merely his second start in a critical will propel him to large points ultimately. He was consoled after the spherical by his family and fellow PGA Tour execs Abraham Ancer, Sebastian Munoz and Joaquin Niemann.

“It’s not how I wanted to complete up this week, nonetheless really good consequence,” Pereira talked about. “Carried out really good. [Sunday], I was really nervous. I tried to take care of it barely bit, nonetheless it is really highly effective. I believed I was going to win on 18, nonetheless it is what it is. We’ll have one different one.”

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who carried out with Pereira and shot 3-over 73 to finish tied for fifth, felt harmful about the easiest way it ended.

“Mito is a surprising baby, and we acquired talking down the second, and he’s solely a really good, down-to-earth baby,” Fitzpatrick talked about. “When that happens, it is highly effective to take. You hope it isn’t you, and it’s highly effective to see. He finishes with a par and he’s acquired the U.S. PGA. You positively actually really feel for him, and I’m constructive he’ll have many chances as soon as extra.”