In addition to battling a course that was reluctant to give up low scores Saturday at LIV Golf DC, Mito Pereira also had to battle allergy problems midway through his second round.
He overcame both issues – and now he’s 18 holes away from his first LIV Golf title.
The Chilean shot a five-under 67 that included 10 birdies and five bogeys to take a one-stroke lead at nine under going into Sunday’s final round at Trump National Washington, DC.
His closest pursuer is first-round leader Harold Varner III, whose even-par 72 left him at eight under. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and American Kevin Na are another shot back in a bunched leaderboard in which 20 pursuers are within six shots of Pereira’s lead.
That includes South Africans Louis Oosthuizen (six under), Branden Grace (five under) and Dean Burmester (four under), who shot 67, 69 and 71 respectively on Saturday.
Pereira hopes his allergy problems will not impact his performance like it threatened to do Saturday.
“It was really, really bad. I just tried to keep myself together and tried to play good and just take the allergy how it is,” he said.
Varner, who opened with an eight-under 64 on Friday, hopes to rebound from a second round that wasn’t as productive as he’d hoped but still leaves him in contention. He’ll need his putter to cooperate better, as he took 31 putts on Saturday, seven more than he needed in the first round.
“I played poorly, but it is what it is,” said the American. “It’s golf. I just didn’t have it but after yesterday, I’m still in position. Just got to get back on the horse and have fun with it.”
Pereira and Varner will be in the final group on Sunday for the first time as LIV Golf members. Stenson returns to the lead group in the final round for the first time since winning last year at Bedminster.
“We’re at the races,” Stenson said, “and we’ll try and finish strong tomorrow.”
– Edited report from LIV Golf website
