TULSA, Okla. — There came the point, about halfway through his round, where Mito Pereira rattled off four bogeys in a five-hole span and watched his once four-shot lead at the PGA Championship drop to a zero-shot lead.
It could’ve been what it often is when a relative unknown leads one of golf’s Major championships.
Thanks for the intrigue, we hope you enjoyed your stay at the top of the leaderboard, now please make way for the superstars.
Instead Pereira, the 100th-ranked golfer in the world who’d never made the cut at a Major or won a PGA Tour event, steadied the ship.
“It was a tough place to be at that moment,” Pereira said. “But I just found myself.”
Now he leads the PGA Championship headed into Sunday’s final round.
The former Texas Tech golfer shot a 1-under par 69 and birdied three of his final six holes to claim a three-shot lead over Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick (-6) through three rounds at Southern Hills. He’s one of four golfers at the top of the leaderboard, including fourth-place Cameron Young (-5), who’ve yet to win on Tour.
“It’s by far the biggest tournament I played, the biggest round of golf,” Pereira said. “And tomorrow is going to be even bigger.”
Pereira began Round 3 a shot back of leader Zalatoris, though after the latter birdied the first hole and the former birdied the second, the two were tied up top. Zalatoris, a Dallas resident, bogeyed four to give the solo lead to Pereira — who then birdied five to extend the advantage to two strokes.
His lead over Zalatoris was as large as four shots before a stretch of four bogeys in five holes — from eight to 12 — dropped the two back into a tie after Zalatoris sank a 35-foot birdie putt on 13. But moments later, Pereira, a native of Chile, responded with a 17-foot birdie putt of his own on 13 to regain the solo lead and never relinquish it.
“I think it’s more just mental,” Pereira said of his bogey stretch. “Obviously that birdie really helped on 13 to get things going. But I was, I wasn’t playing really bad in those bogeys. Just a couple, like one three-putt, one bad break. So it wasn’t like I was losing my confidence.”
The 27-year-old had played in one Major prior to this week — the 2019 U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. His best-ever finish in a PGA Tour event was third place.
Now he leads the PGA Championship, and not by an insignificant amount of strokes. He can become the first golfer since Danny Willett (2016 Masters Tournament) to have their first win be a Major.
No pressure.
“Just try to keep it simple,” Pereira said. “Try to do the same things that I’ve been doing, try to not even look at the people that’s around me.”
Spieth struggles
Jordan Spieth pulled his ball from the hole, flung it behind him and into the water, and made a move to chuck his putter, too, before holding back.
If there were any way to explain his round, he did it himself on the sixth hole.
Spieth, a Dallas native, shot a 4-over 74 in the third round. After shooting a 72 on Thursday, he seemed to have straightened things out a bit with a 69 in the second round.
Instead he responded with his worst 18 holes of the tournament and finished round three at +5, tied for 45th place.
The struggles began early. Spieth’s second shot on the par four first hole landed in the greenside rough, and his approach shot sailed over the green. He gave himself a look at a 5-foot-4 bogey putt after his fourth shot, but he missed it by three feet. He settled for a two-and-a-half foot double bogey putt.
It didn’t get much better from there, as Spieth went on to miss putts of 5, 7, 12, 6, 7, 9 and 9 feet across his next 14 holes. He carded four bogeys — including on one six after a three-putt that resulted in the water-bound ball — to just two birdies.
