LIV Golf reveal Sebastian Munoz and Mito Pereira as the first two PGA Tour players to defect in 2023… with South Americans joining Joaquin Niemann’s team in Saudi-backed breakaway tour
LIV Golf has pried its first two defectors away from the PGA Tour just in time for the start of the Saudi-backed league’s 2023 season.
The competition revealed four of its team’s rosters for its upcoming season, and revealed that Sebastian Munoz and Mito Pereira will be joining.
Both players will join Torque GC – a team comprised of four Spanish-speaking players captained by Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann.
Munoz and Pereira were both members of last fall’s Team International at the President’s Cup and both were involved in a seven-man playoff for a Bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
LIV says the two newcomers will make their tour debut at next week’s season opener at Mayakoba’s El Camaleon course – the first of 14 events this season.
Sebastian Munoz (L) and Mito Pereira (R) are the first PGA pros to defect to LIV Golf in 2023
They are both friends of LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann and will join his Torque GC team
Pereira joins after finishing T-3 at the PGA Championship and being on the tour only a year
Both Munoz and Pereira are friends with Niemann, one of the young hotshots who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf last year.
Pereira – a 27-year-old Chilean – took part in his first full PGA Tour season last year after getting a three wins on the Korn Ferry Tour over the 2020-21 season.
His exploits in last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Oklahoma led him to finishing tied for third, and were featured in Netflix’s Full Swing docuseries.
The 31-year-old Munoz has had his PGA Tour card since 2017 and won his first PGA event at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi back in 2019, beating Sung-jae Im in a playoff.