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Eugenio Chacarra has won four DPWT event in two seasons to earn PGA Tour spot (Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images)
His is a road definitely less traveled, a journey Eugenio Chacarra embarked on four years ago with no guarantees other than financial security. It’s a path that didn’t necessarily mean he would end up where he is today.
Chacarra now looks like the smartest guy in the room, the one who played it perfectly as he is headed to the PGA Tour in 2027, all but certain of a Masters invitation and a contender to join Spaniards Seve Ballesteros and Jon Rahm as Race to Dubai champions on the DP World Tour.
By winning the DP World India Championship on Sunday, Chacarra moved past Patrick Reed — who has led the standings since early February — to the top the season-long DPWT standings. It’s an accomplishment that seemed far, far away when he left LIV Golf following the 2024 season without many guarantees other than the money he banked. (He earned $16 million in prize money in 34 events, beyond the substantial signing bonus he got for joining the breakaway league straight out of college at Oklahoma State.)
Also in today’s DD …
TGL reveals is new five-man team rosters for indoor league’s third season
Ultimately, that financial security is what made the decision to forego playing a fifth season at Oklahoma State and pass on an exemption to play the Korn Ferry Tour that he earned via PGA Tour University. Instead of trying to advance to the PGA Tour the developmental route, Chacarra opted to sign with LIV as a 22-year-old who had plenty of game but a considerable amount of learning to do.
After two years and two professional victories later, Chacarra was the first contracted player to walk away from LIV.
“When I left LIV I wanted to be in majors, be in Ryder Cups, win tournaments on the DP World Tour, be on the PGA Tour. That’s what I dream of since I was little,” Chacarra said after his victory in India on Sunday.
“Obviously when I grew up, LIV wasn’t in existence. But when LIV came up, as one of the best amateurs in the world they offered me something that I couldn’t say no. I’m very thankful for that. My time there was great.
“It helped a lot things for my career. I can have a great team surrounding me, thank you to LIV. I can travel a little better. I can go to nicer hotels. I can give my family and my future family a great life.
“So I’m always grateful to LIV. Nothing bad to say. My time was done. Decided with my team and family that the next step was ready for me.”
That step wasn’t an easy one, as Chacarra had no status on any tour and had to try and make his way at first via sponsor invites. A victory in March of 2025 at the Hero Indian Open — his fifth DP World Tour start as a non-member — earned him membership on the European tour. Now he’s a lock to take up his PGA Tour card next season as well.
“I want to be in both tours. I want to play some on the PGA Tour because there is a lot of best players out there and I want to prove that I can still beat them, too,” he said.
“I want to play on the DP World Tour, too. It’s a fantastic tour. I enjoyed my time here. European tour are doing a tremendous job with the fields, best courses, how they treat us and make every week.”
Chacarra stirred up some hard feelings in early 2025 after leaving LIV — his team captained by Sergio Garcia did not retain him, and it’s unclear why another team didn’t pick him up — when he told the social media site Flushing It that he was frustrated by the way things unfolded at LIV.
After his initial victory in just the sixth LIV event in 2022 in Bangkok, Chacarra’s game fell off and he wondered about his future.
“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes,” he said then. “How you get major access and (world) ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money.”
At the time, LIV was not getting Official World Golf Ranking recognition, which finally came this year. There was no direct access to the U.S. Open and Open Championship, which has been the case the last two years.
Chacarra’s insinuation at the time was promises were made and not kept.
Chacarra was sitting pretty with Fireballs after winning LIV Bangkok event (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf via Getty Images)
Now, look at him. He’s still only 26 years old. He has a bit of swagger, a strong game, an engaging personality. There’s nothing pretty about the way Chacarra plays golf — his figure belies the fitness trends and his swing is unconventional but effective. Although he is from Spain, Chacarra makes his home in Oklahoma near where he went to college and still wears Oklahoma State orange on Sundays.
It is way, way early, but he currently leads the European Ryder Cup points list for the 2027 event in Ireland.
“That’s one of the goals we have on the team,” he said of the Ryder Cup. “I’m working really hard for it. We are still a year away, but I know what I’m capable of. I know I’m a good player. I got a lot of charisma, and I just want to keep getting better and keep winning.”
Chacarra’s self-belief has lead him to four DP World Tour wins including three this season. He also won the 2022 LIV event in Thailand and the Asian Tour’s 2023 St. Andrews Bay Championship. He’s bet on himself at every stage and won.
“I believe I can be one of the best players in the world,” he said, “and that’s what I wake up every single morning dreaming — of being one of the best players in the world, and contending in majors.
“Hopefully this moves me up pretty good on the ranking and I could be confirmed for the next year’s four majors. It will be my first Masters and I am lucky now that I played the other three. Last year was my first Open. I enjoyed every single moment of it. I played four days. And I think I can, with my game, keep working hard to be contending in those tournaments in a couple years or next year.
“I know what I’m capable of. I was one of the best amateurs in the world and I wanted to be one of the best professional players in the world.”
Chacarra is now ranked No. 39 in the OWGR, with the top 50 at the end of the year earning a Masters invite. He’s a lock to get in the PGA Championship, in excellent shape for the U.S. Open and will be exempt for the Open via the Race to Dubai standings.
First things first: holding off Reed and Rory McIlroy to attempt to join Ballesteros and Rahm as Spanish champions in the DP World Tour’s season-long race.
“It would mean the world,” he said. “Those two guys are heros for me as Spanish golfer. Seve did everything for European and Spanish golf, and then Jon is a guy that I’ve been looking up since he went to college and professional golf. What he has accomplished, it’s amazing. Hopefully I can put my name on that trophy, too. …
“I know it’s not going to be easy. Rory in Dubai always plays good and I know it’s going to be a big battle. Patrick, too. Two of the best players in the world coming for me now, and I know they’re not going to make it easy.”
TGL’s 2027 rosters reveal trade, adds and exits
TGL — the indoor simulator golf league that will kick off its third season in late December — announced its expanded player rosters for the coming season which has an expansion team as well as expanded rosters.
Perhaps just as interesting as those who will play this season is the list of those who won’t be back. Xander Schauffele, Adam Scott, Lucas Glover and Kevin Kisner are not part of the lineups announced Tuesday after competing over the past two years. No reasons were given for their omittance, as TGL is now going to five-player rosters to choose the three players who will compete each week instead of four-man team rosters the first two seasons.
Kisner had been part of Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links team, which now includes Max Homa, Tom Kim, Akshay Bhatia and new addition Keith Mitchell. Kisner, the NBC commentator who also works the Masters broadcast for Sirius XM, offered an odd take last week on Rory McIlroy, who helped found TGL with Woods.
On the Fore Play Podcast, Kisner suggested that McIlroy’s foray in India was driven more by appearance fees than growing the game. Never mind that McIlroy — who has a corporate deal with DP World, the title sponsor in India — has typically played at many of these places as part of his DP World Tour fall schedule.
“I guess for the right price, we could all say that comment,” Kisner said. “He doesn’t want to globally expand in India, he wants to get his $10 million bucks and go play in India.”
McIlroy was taken aback when questioned after the final round Sunday, having not been aware of Kisner’s comments.
“Two things can be true at the same time,” McIlroy said. “People can get paid to come and play at a tournament, but at the same time, do it from a place of genuine interest of trying to bring the sport to another country — a developing country, a country where the middle class is bigger than the entire population of the United States. It’s a huge market for golf.”
In the last two years, outside of his PGA Tour schedule, McIlroy has played the season-ending events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, played each of the last two years at the Scottish Open, Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship and the India Championship. He also plays annually in the January Dubai Desert Classic and will head to Australia for the second straight year and fifth time in his career to play in the co-sanctioned Australian Open.
McIlroy, as captain of the Boston Common TGL team, worked a trade to bring fellow Irishman Shane Lowry to the team after playing the first two seasons for The Bay Golf Club. Lowry joins McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, newcomer Michael Thorbjornsen and Hideki Matsuyama.
Defending SoFi Cup champion Los Angeles Golf Club brings back all four players from its title-winning roster, including Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose, Fleetwood and Sahith Theegala. Ben James joins as the fifth player after earning his PGA Tour card by finishing No. 1 in the 2026 PGA Tour University ranking.
Reigning Open champion Ryan Fox and Blades Brown join Wyndham Clark, Min Woo Lee and Ludvig Åberg on The Bay team. Brown, 19, became the youngest player to earn a PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour.
Chris Gotterup moves from alternate to full-time player for the Atlanta Drive, joining Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Billy Horschel and newcomer Michael Brennan.
TGL newcomers Ben Griffin and Alex Fitzpatrick join Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young and Rickie Fowler with New York Golf Club.
Motor City Golf Club, TGL’s first expansion team, features five-time major winner Brooks Koepka, PGA Tour rookie phenom Jackson Koivun, Jake Knapp, Si Woo Kim and Bud Cauley.