Chacarra caused a mix of intrigue and bewilderment when he decided to walk out midway through the playoff of a US Open qualifier at the Dallas Athletic Club. In a tense six-for-one shootout last Monday, LIV Golf’s Caleb Surratt had secured the final guaranteed ticket to next month’s major at Shinnecock Hills with a birdie on the first extra hole.
But there were still two important alternate spots to play for when Chacarra exited the stage.
Chacarra, it turns out, had a flight to catch. If the 26-year-old Spaniard ploughed on in the hope he’d make it as an alternate, he’d miss his transatlantic red-eye to Belgium, which would have jeopardized his preparations for that week’s Soudal Open.
“I left because my goal is to get my PGA Tour card through the DP World Tour, and the right way for me to prepare for Belgium was to get that flight,” he later explained.
Indeed, Chacarra has tunnel vision on getting one of those 10 PGA Tour cards, which are somewhat controversially made available to non-exempt members on the DP World Tour.
“When you fly to Europe, you lose a day, and that was the only chance I had to get there on time to get some rest and practice the course,” he added. “I wasn’t good enough to make it, and it wasn’t worth it to lose my flight and my team’s flight for an alternate spot that I also didn’t know I was going to get. I wanted to prepare for Belgium the best way possible.”
A standout at Oklahoma State University, Chacarra spent the first three years of his professional career on LIV Golf, making $16 million in prize money across 34 events while slowly realizing the league was fulfilling his financial dreams but not his childhood ones. His departure from LIV was notably acrimonious as he claimed the league had failed to deliver on some of its promises.
“Once you win out there, as I did, your life doesn’t change that much,” he told TG. “You don’t get into majors, you don’t get a chance to be in the Ryder Cup, you don’t get a chance to play a lot of events. That affected me as a player, and I lost motivation.”
Chacarra left Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC team at the end of the 2024 season and entered a brave new world, marooned without a home tour. Fortunately, he made full use of a sponsor’s invite with what he described as a “life-changing win” at the Hero Indian Open in March 2025, securing DP World Tour playing rights, which enabled him to pursue the PGA Tour card he so craves.
At the Soudal Open he had prioritized at all costs last week, Chacarra did not contend, but finished in a tie for 22nd, earning some more valuable points to remain just four places from the PGA Tour spots in the Race to Dubai rankings.
Chacarra’s obsession with securing his ticket to America has, however, sometimes caught up with him. He briefly stepped away from the tour in February over “mental challenges” possibly linked to burnout.
“As a competitor, you want to play, and you know if you don’t play people are going to pass you,” he tells TG. “But there are some times you just need to listen to your body. The best [thing] was to take some weeks off and be home. I can refresh, get my game ready for me to be able to compete on my highest level. We did a good job, and that came out, and I have a chance again of getting my PGA Tour card.”
Chacarra expects a natural transition if and when he does eventually make it Stateside. He made his full first PGA Tour start in Puerto Rico on another sponsor’s invite earlier this season, finishing 21st, and has even turned to the Korn Ferry Tour during off weeks in Europe to hone his prep. He believes the level of talent on the US feeder circuit is “as strong” as on the DP World Tour.
“I love America, I think that’s where my game is translated,” he says. “The greens are firm. On the European tour, there’s only three or four courses that we play firm. One of them is India [DLF Country Club] and I won and finished second there. That’s why I had a great career in college golf. I was one of the best out there, just because the greens are way firmer. For my swing – I hit the ball high and spinny – it’s way better, and I get more advantage. But for being the best, you need to play well everywhere, and that’s what we’re working on.”
The PGA Tour is not the end goal for Chacarra, but the place where he feels he can become one of the best golfers in the world. He has never shied away from his lofty goal and speaks with an intensity that matches the ambition that burns inside him.
“I wanted to be one of the best amateurs in the world, and I went up to number two, and you can say number one because number one was Keita [Nakajima], and he was playing PGA Japan, and it was impossible to [catch] him,” Chacarra says. “I was the best player in college golf, and I want to be the best player in the world. I have a long way to go. I need to work hard. I need to get better, but that’s the goal that I’ve been doing since I was little.”
Chacarra is currently the world No.129 and has played in only two majors. He knows from his limited experience that he’s a long way from the finished article. “I mean, I’m young,” he says when asked how he plans to make such a big leap. “I only played 30 events on the DP World Tour. I need to start getting to know myself a little better and get my mental game a little better, and then I think I need to do way better with my wedges.
“My wedges have not been up to standard, and it’s something that we’re working on. I need to control my spin better. I think I have a lot of spin on the ball because of how my swing is, so I need to do a little better job with wedges. I need to get sharper, and that’s what we’re working on.”
Chacarra’s aspirations to be spoken about among the elite have prompted inevitable questions about past decisions. Why did he initially believe LIV was the best route from college? And, more pertinently, did his lucrative experiment help or hinder his pathway to the game’s upper echelons?
“I’m very thankful for LIV, but I also made the right decision when I decided to just not even try to stay there,” he says. “I can tell you it helped a lot. My family and I are set for life, and that was why I went there too. It was three great years where I learned a lot. I think I got better, too. I learned a lot from great players out there, but obviously playing golf and having now been able to have a great life and give my kids the life that I wanted to give them is something very unique, and it gets some pressure out of my head.
“Professional golf is tough, and you can lose a lot of money if you don’t have good weeks. Obviously, having the chance, being lucky that I played great at the right time, I went to LIV, and I got money to go there. I played some good golf out there and made myself set financially. It helps me mentally, and I’m here to try to win tournaments, try to get better, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Chacarra would perhaps feel like he left LIV at a good time, with the league’s future now shrouded in uncertainty as it fights for survival without the multi-billion dollar backing of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. But while stressing he is incredibly grateful for his time there, Chacarra does not want to spend much time looking back.
“I’ve been talking to Patrick Reed since he left, and I said, yeah, ‘this tour is great’,” Chacarra says. “All I know is that I’m happy where I’m at. The European Tour and the PGA Tour have an amazing product, and that’s where, in my opinion, the best players in the world play. That’s where I want to be.”
TG has learned that some LIV players could follow Chacarra and Reed’s path to the DP World Tour as they seek contingency plans for 2027. In the meantime, it’s understood that several players have been offering the league financial leads as they chase the investment required for a truncated schedule next season. Chacarra was asked if he would welcome a reunion with his old LIV rivals on the traditional circuits in the near future.
“Yeah, all the good players,” he says. “It makes the tour stronger. I want to be the best player in the world. To be the best player in the world, you need to beat everyone, so whatever happens, happens.
“I just need to get better to hopefully be one of the best.”