Eugenio Chacarra will make history next week.<\/p>\n
Chacarra will play the Puerto Rico Open on a sponsor exemption, becoming the first former LIV Golf member to receive an invite to a PGA Tour event.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old Chacarra, who starred at Oklahoma State, joined LIV out of college in 2022, but his contract with Fireballs GC was not renewed after the 2024 season. Chacarra transitioned to playing DP World Tour events, winning the 2025 Hero Indian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying LIV was a tremendous opportunity for me, for my family, for my future family,\u201d Chacarra said Tuesday. \u201cIt was something that we thought at the time was the best for me, and I don\u2019t regret anything of it. \u2026 But my dream since I was little was to be on the PGA Tour, so I thought it was time for me. Like I said, back in the day when I left, that I\u2019m going to try to go back to my best level, get my game where it needs to be. I know when my game\u2019s good, I can compete with all the best players in the world. Yeah, I\u2019m excited to have a chance to compete on the PGA Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chacarra\u2019s exemption comes after Laurie Canter became the first player to qualify for and play in a PGA Tour event, at last year\u2019s Players Championship. Canter earned his PGA Tour card for this season via the Race to Dubai, though he opted to rejoin LIV this year. Brooks Koepka returned to the PGA Tour as a full-time member at the Farmers Insurance Open via the Returning Member Program, which was created after Koepka decided to leave LIV this past December.<\/p>\n
Chacarra served a year-long suspension from the PGA Tour that ended last September. He has, however, already teed it up in a co-sanctioned PGA Tour tournament since leaving LIV, missing the cut at last summer\u2019s Genesis Scottish Open. Before that, he qualified for the PGA Championship last May via his play internationally but missed the cut there, too. As an amateur, Chacarra played three PGA Tour events, including the 2021 Sanderson Farms, where he tied for 45th, his best career finish.<\/p>\n
Recently, Chacarra has been on a mental-health break from competitive golf. After missing two of his last three cuts, he withdrew from last week\u2019s Magical Kenya Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cLately, the biggest challenge hasn\u2019t been physical \u2013 it\u2019s been mental,\u201d Chacarra wrote on social media. \u201cI believe in being honest about the ups and downs, and right now I need time to reset, heal, and take care of my mind so I can come back stronger, healthier, and truly ready to compete. It hurts to step away from competing that\u2019s what I most love, but sometimes the strongest thing you can do is listen to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chacarra has spent the past few weeks home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He\u2019s been practicing at Southern Hills, where he is a member, and the Cowboys\u2019 home facility, Karsten Creek. He\u2019s lost some weight in recent months as he strives it get healthier. He also had his wisdom teeth removed last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know how golf is,\u201d Chacarra said. \u201cOne day it\u2019s there, one day it\u2019s not there. I\u2019m trying to be more steady, not highs and downs. And, yeah, I\u2019m excited to see where my game is with the PGA Tour. I feel like it\u2019s pretty much my first PGA Tour event for me being healthy and being getting my game where I want it to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chacarra\u2019s immediate goal: Win, or at least finish top 10 in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
And if not, head back to the DP World Tour, play his way into majors (he\u2019s currently No. 141 in the world) and aim for a top-10 finish in the Race to Dubai to get his PGA Tour card that way (he\u2019s No. 27 in points thanks to a third at the Alfred Dunhill last December).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m playing good, I\u2019m capable of winning,\u201d Chacarra said. \u201cI already proved that to myself and to the world. So, obviously every time I go tee off, I want to win. So, that will be the first goal. But like I said, I have also started pretty decent on the DP World Tour rankings this year. … If I keep playing good out there I also have a chance to get my PGA Tour card through there. But every opportunity I can have on the PGA Tour and get sponsor invite or hopefully finish top 10 in Puerto Rico or win, and that will make my path even easier. The goal is to try to get better every single day, work hard, and hopefully that will lead me to the PGA Tour, I don\u2019t know, in a month, in a week, or in a couple years. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut obviously the goal is to be out there as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eugenio Chacarra will make history next week. Chacarra will play the Puerto Rico Open on a sponsor exemption,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-498607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}