Connect with us

19th Hole

12 players to follow in 2022: (1) Guillermo Mito Pereira Hinke

Published

on

Over the next 12 days, the two presenters on our new ‘Across The Pond’ podcast, Matt Vincenzi and Jason Daniels give their 12 players to follow for 2022 to coincide with the 12 days of Christmas. 

None so far have won on their respective tours, so here’s to a long-term watch and investment!

1. Guillermo Mito Pereira Hinke (PGA Tour)

The Chilean, better known as simply Mito Pereira, is hardly a shock inclusion in the list but will surely pay to follow over the next year.

The 26-year-old has a decent junior resume, backed up with a runner-up at the Junior Open Championship, and as an amateur, he beat several home professionals in the 2013 Las Brisas de Chicureo Open. The latter may mean little in the grand scheme of things, but it’s worth noting that current world number 30, Joaquin Niemann, won the same event four years later.

In 2016, Mito became the youngest ever player to rank at the top of the SMA rankings after his first full season saw him land a win, two runner-up finishes, a third and three further top-10s, whilst his first year on the Korn Ferry Tour was highlighted by three top-15 finishes and a third in Nashville, just a shot shy of the play-off between subsequent PGA Tour winners Lanto Griffin and Abraham Ancer.

A single top-10 and couple of top-20 finishes were nowhere near enough to keep his KFT card in 2018 and, having returned home, he recovered from a broken collar bone to again show his class on his home tour where 17 starts were rewarded with one runner-up, three top-five finishes, two top-10s and four top-20s. 

Missing KFT Q-School qualification by just one place in 2020 seemed to give him impetus, and he followed up an early opportunity in Panama (3rd) with his maiden victory just a week later. That win, amongst a familiar Spanish-speaking crowd, came courtesy of a 72nd hole eagle and final round 64, giving him a two-shot victory from four shots off the pace overnight.

Perhaps it was a good thing that promotion was suspended through the ‘lockdown’ period and, whilst he started the comeback events slowly, by April this year he had hit his stride, steadily making his way through to the weekend before a couple of top-30s preceded a loss in a three-way play-off at the Huntsville Championship.

Two finishes on the front page were enough to think he had chances to gain his card this year, and he didn’t disappoint, landing back-to-back wins via a play-off at the Rex Hospital and a four-shot win in South Carolina, the total of three victories giving him a fast-track to the top league.

Highly touted before his start at the Rocket Mortgage in July, the Chilean has since rewarded his faithful each-way backers with four top-six finishes in the space of half-a-dozen starts, including a tied-fourth at the classy Tokyo Olympics.

His form has dropped recently with his usual impressive approach and tee-to-green going missing at the RSM and Houston, but that he can finish top-30 without being anywhere near his best gives an indication of what we may expect after a short break and all guns firing. 

Clearly look for him in events around the Southern states and South America, but he’s certainly not averse to winning at any course that calls for accuracy, will take to windy conditions, and recent figures may just allow us a few points more than we deserve.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

Published

on

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Published

on

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

Continue Reading

19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Published

on

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending