[Photo: Mateo Villalba]
Eugenio Chacarra had a difficult decision to make on Thursday night in Spain. He had seized a share of the lead in his home country’s national open on the DP World Tour, but had literally limped through the round with a broken toe he suffered in a middle-of-the-night trip to get a glass of water.
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A clearly torn Chacarra weighed the consequences of staying in the tournament and possibly making the injury worse, with tournaments still to be played in his chase to win the season-long Race to Dubai.
“Obviously, I need to take care of myself,” Chacarra said on Thursday. “…I’ll just sit down with the team and see what we decide because it was tough.”
The 26-year-old made the call to play in the second round, and he powered through again, this time shooting 69 to trail leader Grant Forrest (67), of Scotland, by two shots. Chacarra closed the round by making three birdies in the last five holes.
“It doesn’t really hurt when I’m swinging,” Chacarra explained on Thursday. “That’s the only good thing. It’s why I can still make a score, but it’s just been really tough to walk. I made it through today but the pain I had [over] the last holes walking is something that I don’t know if it’s worth it because I’ve got a lot to play for in the next couple of weeks.”
Chacarra is a former Oklahoma State University star who rose to No.2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and turned pro by going to LIV Golf in June 2022. He won his first title a few months later in Bangkok. Chacarra then left LIV in 2025 and won the DP World Tour’s Hero Indian Open while playing on a sponsor exemption.
He backed that up with two wins in June this season, and if he were to win this week it could produce an enormous step forward. With season points leader Patrick Reed missing the cut in Spain by a shot, Chacarra could take over the Race to Dubai’s No.1 spot with a victory.
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As for being cut from LIV and his Fireballs team after three season – the captain was his countryman, Sergio Garcia – Chacarra looks to have come out far better than many of his peers. He didn’t hold back about his disillusionment when he closed the LIV door.
“I always said it was a great time of life,” said in an interview with Today’s Golfer. “I learned a lot, I played with great players, but I thought my time there was done. And I wanted to experience something else. I wanted to play more tournaments. I wanted to be playing every week, I wanted to fight for cuts, I wanted to fight for goals.
“I have a lot of goals and I was losing a lot of motivation. I knew it was going to be difficult because I had a year’s suspension on the PGA Tour for joining LIV, but thankfully I got a couple of sponsors’ invites, had a chance to win in India, and I took it. Now I’m focusing on new goals and hopefully I can get my PGA Tour card. That’s what I’ve been dreaming of since I was a kid.
“They told me a lot of things that never really happened, and I don’t know if it bothered me or not, but I lost motivation because of it. I wanted to play in majors and be in contention for the Ryder Cup. I love competing, but not just for 13 weeks a year. I want to play 30 or 25-plus [events], so that’s one of the things I want to move forward towards.
“Once you win out there, like I did, your life doesn’t change that much. 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. So me and my team thought the best way to move forward was to try to get on the DP World Tour, win on there, and then work my way up to the PGA Tour. It might take us one year, it might take us six years, but that’s the goal.”
