Sebastián

Muñoz

As good as he was at that young age, not even Muñoz himself could have predicted that at 23 he would return to the Country Club of Bogota to win the 2016 Club Colombia Championship as a professional golfer.

By sinking a three-foot putt for victory, he became the first Colombian to win on the Web.com Tour, sparking wild celebrations from family, friends and countrymen around the 18th green.

“When I made that short putt, I just felt relieved,” he said. “I could not think of anything else because of all the people jumping on me.”

Muñoz was educated at the University of North Texas which is where he first met future LIV Golf team-mate Carlos Ortiz.

He excelled at the sport during his senior year and won the Conference USA Championship and earned a Conference USA Men’s Golf individual medal.

He turned professional after graduating in 2015 and returned to South America to play in the PGA Tour Latinoamerica Developmental Series.

Success came early as Muñoz landed his first two wins as a pro at the 2015 Abierto de Buracamanga and Abierto de Club Campestre Medellin, which helped him to gain promotion to Latin America’s main tour.

In February 2016 he was granted a sponsor exemption to play in the Club Colombia Championship in his home town Bogota – and book his place in golfing history.

That win earned him entry to the Web.com [now Korn Ferry] Tour for the rest of 2016 and by finishing 22 nd on the money list by the end of the season he was able to step up again, having earned his PGA Tour card for 2017.

His best outing the following year was the 2017 Greenbrier Classic, where he shot a 61 in the opening round and was the overnight leader for all three days, but fell away on- the Sunday to end T3.

He returned to the Web.com Tour for 2018 and three top-three finishes helped him to 12th place in the money list and regain his PGA Tour card for the following year.

Sebastián Muñoz achieved that all-important career milestone of a first PGA Tour win at the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship at the Country Club of Jackson.

At the last hole, Muñoz needed to sink a 15-foot birdie putt to force a playoff with leader Sungjae Im, then held his nerve to save par at the first extra hole to win the Championship.

“I’m so thrilled to be here and to be the champion,” Muñoz said in his victory speech.

“I will always have a special connection to Jackson, Mississippi because this is the first event I ever played in as a PGA Tour member back in 2016.”

The following year, Muñoz made his debut in The Masters and went into the fourth day in T7, but a final round 75 saw him drop to T19, which remains his best in the Augusta Major.

There was another big event in 2020 as Muñoz married his wife Daniela Grandos in September and today they live in Dallas Fort Worth with their young daughter.

Muñoz went on to represent Colombia in the delayed 2020 Olympic Games, narrowly missing out on a medal by finishing tied for fourth place.

They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but Muñoz managed just that in 2021-22, becoming the first PGA Tour player to shoot a 60 or better twice in the same season.

The fun started in November’s RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia, where Muñoz opened with a 60 to lead the tournament at 10-under going into day two.

He eventually finished third with an overall score of 264 after four rounds, 18-under-par. The following May he was at it again, at the AT&T Byron Nelson.

Muñoz was the overnight leader at TPC Craig Ranch after shooting an opening round 60 for 12-under-par at the Tom Weiskopf-designed course.

But despite keeping his scores in the 60s through all four days to complete a competitive 24-under for the tournament, he had to settle for T3.

Sebastián Muñoz was quick to praise his partnership with new caddie Jose Campra after landing that second 60 of the season at the 2022 Byron Nelson.

“I feel like ever since he got on the bag, we’ve had good vibes,” Munoz said. 

Campra is also a well-respected coach and runs his own academy back in his native Argentina.

“We understand each other,” Muñoz added. “We kind of speak a language that we can both see our shots and our distances.”

Muñoz has played in 135 PGA Tour events with career earnings of $9,218,767 in prize money, his one win coming at the 2019 Sanderson Farms Championship.

When he announced in February 2023 that he was making the move to LIV, he had achieved a career best 49th on the official world golf ranking and a further 56 events on the Web.com/Korn Ferry had earned him an additional $537,976. 

Muñoz was certainly no stranger to the concept of team golf.

He was selected in the International line-up for the 2022 Presidents Cup, remaining unbeaten with two wins and a draw despite the United States ending up as comfortable winners by 17½ to 12½.

In November 2023 he won a silver medal for Colombia at the Pan American Games after just missing out on the gold by one stroke to Mexico’s Abraham Ancer.

Muñoz confirmed he was going to join Torque Golf Club along with Chilean Mito Pereira. That saw them complete an all-Latin American team as they linked up with captain Joaquin Niemann, who is also from Chile, plus Muñoz’s old University of North Texas buddy, Carlos Ortiz, an Olympian with Mexico.

Muñoz made a flying start to his LIV Golf career with an eighth-place finish in the opening event of 2023 in Mayakoba, Mexico, and was runner-up in his third appearance at Orlando, where Torque went on to win their first team event.

There were three more team wins and a further three finishes in the top four for Muñoz to celebrate before the end of the season, all of which helped him achieve a highly respectable 11th place in the individual standings, with Torque third in the Team Championship.

The 2024 season proved to be a bit tougher but although he ended 23rd in the individual competition, Muñoz showed strong consistency with 11 finishes in the top half of the leaderboard from 13 events.

He was also the best individual player in the end of season finale, shooting a 64 in the Team Championship as Torque finished 10th .

To begin with, let’s give him his full name: Juan Sebastián Muñoz Amaya. Muñoz is the paternal name while Amaya comes from his mother’s side. His preferred first name is Sebastián, which is straightforward.

To pronounce his second name correctly you have to extend the sound of the U and pay attention to the tilde over the N which gives an ‘enye’ sound in the Spanish language. So to hit the spot correctly you have to say it in two parts, ‘Moon-yoze'.

Let’s start with something you are unlikely to find in any other LIV golfer’s bag, a very special good luck charm.

“My dad gave me a seed from a tree and it’s called Ojo de Buey,” Muñoz said. “It’s always been in my bag in my coin box, I always keep it there.”

Muñoz has been a huge fan of Ping throughout his career and during his final year on the PGA Tour the brand dominated his bag, the only exception being a TaylorMade fairway wood.

Dealing with the heavyweights first, his driver was a Ping G425 MAX with 9-degrees of loft. 

Choosing a 3-wood can be one of the trickiest selections in golfer’s bag and Muñoz was staying faithful to a TaylorMade SIM Ti (15 degrees) that he had used for several years. His 7-wood was a Ping G425 (20.5-degrees at 19 degrees).

For the irons, a Ping G410 Crossover was an occasional entry, 3-iron was a Ping i200 and the remainder from 4-iron to 9-iron were Ping i210s, with a Ping iBlade pitching wedge also available if needed.

There was a mix among the wedges, with a 50-degree Ping Glide 2.0 Stealth and Ping Glide 3.0 for the 56 and 60-degree wedges

He has experimented with a few different putters, switching between a Ping Sigma 2 Valor and a Ping Kushin 4, but he was also seen with a Ping PLD Prototype. His favored ball is the Titleist Pro V1.