RUMOUR: Presidents Cup player has "agreed" to join LIV Golf
Chile's Mito Pereira is expected to move to LIV Golf after making his debut at the Presidents Cup.
Chile's Mito Pereira has already "agreed" to join LIV Golf and he is expected to link up with the Saudi-backed circuit after making his debut at the Presidents Cup, an insider has told GolfMagic.
Pereira, who threw away his chances of winning the US PGA Championship with a double-bogey six on the final hole earlier this season, is lining up in Trevor Immelman's International Presidents Cup team in Charlotte this week.
The Presidents Cup has been somewhat disrupted this year as a result of all LIV Golf players being banned from competing in the biennial contest by the PGA Tour.
It is understood from our source with inside information on the LIV Golf Tour that current PGA Tour member Pereira, 27, is a big fan of the team format on Greg Norman's new series, and that he will soon join his good friend Joaquin Niemann on Torque GC.
Captain Niemann, 23, currently has Scott Vincent, David Puig and Jediah Morgan on his Torque GC team, and so one of those three players will likely need to make way for the incoming Pereira.
Pereira had been strongly linked with a move to LIV several weeks ago when six PGA Tour players jumped ship, including Niemann and Open champion Cameron Smith.
Even Golf Channel were reporting that Pereira was one of the names about to join the breakaway Tour.
But Pereira, ranked 49th in the Official World Golf Rankings right now, is understood to have held back on the move because he wanted to compete in the Presidents Cup for the first time in his career.
"The agreements have been done and Mito Pereira will be joining LIV Golf to play with his very good mate Joaquin Niemann," an insider has told GolfMagic.
"Mito wanted to play in the Presidents Cup, which is why he has delayed the move."
Since finishing tied third at the US PGA Championship, Pereira picked up a tie for seventh at the Charles Schwab Challenge and a tie for 13th at the Memorial Tournament.
But then he missed four straight cuts, including the US Open and 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.
Pereira made it through to the second FedEx Cup Playoffs event at the BMW Championship, but he finished tied 54th there to scupper his chances of making it into the 30-man season finale at the Tour Championship.
He did, however, automatically qualify for Immelman's International Presidents Cup team, which had ultimately been one of his goals for the season.
"It's the only chance we get to play in team format as an international," Pereira told the media ahead of the Day 1 Foursomes where he joins Taylor Pendrith in the fifth match.
"We can't play the Ryder Cup, so this is our big event as a team."
More: Mito Pereira quit golf as a teenager before becoming PGA Tour player
Fellow International Presidents Cup player Adam Scott has also been strongly linked with a move to LIV Golf but the former Masters champion gave a brutally honest answer in his pre-tournament interview this week.
There is also plenty of talk about a third International Presidents Cup member potentially leaving the PGA Tour in Hideki Matsuyama - a player that is understood to have been offered in the region of $400 million to join LIV Golf.
