\u201cOnce you win out there, as I did, your life doesn\u2019t change that much,\u201d he told TG. \u201cYou don\u2019t get into majors, you don\u2019t get a chance to be in the Ryder Cup, you don\u2019t get a chance to play a lot of events. That affected me as a player, and I lost motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Chacarra left Sergio Garcia\u2019s 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\u2019s invite with what he described as a \u201clife-changing win\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Chacarra\u2019s obsession with securing his ticket to America has, however, sometimes caught up with him. He briefly stepped away from the tour in February<\/a> over \u201cmental challenges\u201d possibly linked to burnout.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAs a competitor, you want to play, and you know if you don\u2019t play people are going to pass you,\u201d he tells TG. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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 \u201cas strong\u201d as on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n \u201cI love America, I think that\u2019s where my game is translated,\u201d he says. \u201cThe greens are firm.\u00a0On the European tour,\u00a0there\u2019s 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\u2019s why I had a great career in college golf.\u00a0I was one of the best out there,\u00a0just because the greens are way firmer. For my swing \u2013 I hit the ball high and spinny \u2013 it\u2019s way better, and I get more advantage. But for being the best, you need to play well everywhere, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Chacarra says. \u201cI 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\u2019s the goal that I\u2019ve been doing since I was little.\u201d<\/p>\n Chacarra is currently the world No.129 and has played in only two majors. He knows from his limited experience that he\u2019s a long way from the finished article. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m young,\u201d he says when asked how he plans to make such a big leap. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n \u201cMy wedges have not been up to standard, and it\u2019s something that we\u2019re 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\u2019s what we\u2019re working on.\u201d<\/p>\n Chacarra\u2019s 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\u2019s upper echelons?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very thankful for LIV, but I also made the right decision\u00a0when I decided to just not even try to stay there,\u201d he says. \u201cI 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cProfessional golf is tough, and you can lose a lot of money if you don\u2019t 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\u2019m here to try to win tournaments, try to get better, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Chacarra would perhaps feel like he left LIV at a good time, with the league\u2019s future now shrouded in uncertainty as it fights for survival without the multi-billion dollar backing of Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund. But while stressing he is incredibly grateful for his time there, Chacarra does not want to spend much time looking back.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been talking to Patrick Reed since he left,\u00a0and I said, yeah, \u2018this tour is great\u2019,\u201d Chacarra says. \u201cAll I know is that I\u2019m happy where I\u2019m at. The European Tour and the PGA Tour have an amazing product,\u00a0and that\u2019s where, in my opinion, the best players in the world play. That\u2019s where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n TG has learned that some LIV players could follow Chacarra and Reed\u2019s path to the DP World Tour as they seek contingency plans for 2027<\/a>. In the meantime, it\u2019s understood that several players have been offering the league financial leads<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, all the good players,\u201d he says. \u201cIt 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. <\/p>\n \u201cI just need to get better to hopefully be one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chacarra caused a mix of intrigue and bewilderment when he decided to walk out midway through the playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-702583","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\/702583","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=702583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Eugenio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2273815329.jpg\")
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