It’s been a busy few weeks on the pro golf “transfer portal”. Other PGA Tour winners have joined LIV Golf. One LIV star is leaving the league. The LIV superstar is playing hardball with his next contract. Some players have been cut by LIV due to poor performance.
Eugenio Chacarra, a former LIV winner, got some of this last season. After losing his spot in LIV at the end of 2024, he criticized certain aspects of the league, started playing DP World Tour events and announced his desire to resume chasing his PGA Tour dream.
In a new interview, Chacarra detailed the negatives of his LIV experience, how it impacted his performance and career development and how the DP World-PGA Tour life suits him best.
LIV short work by Eugenio Chacarra
Back in 2022, Chacarra was a novice golfer ranked No. 2 in the world. When he chose to join LIV in the first season, it was seen as a huge benefit for the league’s debut and a bad sign for the PGA Tour.
Chacarra backed up his amateur resume and LIV’s confidence in him by winning the 2022 LIV Golf Invitational in Bangkok, edging out Patrick Reed by three shots.
But that was the climax of Chacarra’s LIV. His play declined in the following years, and in 2024 he finished 39th in the LIV season standings. His LIV contract was also up.
Rather than try to return to LIV, Chacarra then decided to try a different career path: he would play the DP World Tour with hopes of one day making it to the PGA Tour.
The LIV winner’s complaints underscore what is broken with professional golf
By:
Josh Schrock
Chacarra’s program got off to a spectacular start when he won the DP World Tour’s 2025 Hero Indian Open in March, thus earning a full DP World ranking for the rest of the season.
He ended up finishing 36th in the 2025 Race to Dubai, falling short of the top-10 finish he needed to earn a 2026 PGA Tour card.
Interestingly, despite a PGA Tour ban that prevented him from playing Tour events in 2025, Chacarra actually played a PGA Tour tournament last season.
His success on the DP World Tour earned him a spot in the 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, an event jointly sponsored by DP World and the PGA Tours.
But with the new season just around the corner, Chacarra has big plans for his future.
Chacarra explains why he prefers the PGA Tour to LIV
In a new interview with Today’s Golfer, Chacarra talked about his time at LIV Golf, and explained in detail why we don’t fit into his new career vision.
First, Chacarra admitted that his LIV years were “a great time,” that he “learned a lot” and was able to compete with “great players.”
But something was missing when he was at LIV. Early in his career, Chacarra was hungry to make his mark in the game, but found that playing in LIV made it difficult for him to pursue his bigger career goals.
He won in LIV, then criticized the league. Now, he is playing a PGA Tour event
By:
Josh Schrock
The league’s failure to gain recognition in the Official World Golf Ranking, the main entry point to golf’s major tournaments, has been a major part of the problem.
“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 my motivation because of it,” Chacarra told theToday’s golfer.
He went on to explain that unlike the PGA Tour, LIV winners cannot reach the majors or the Ryder Cup by winning tournaments. That fact made him lose motivation to act, which led to negative results.
“Once you’re successful there, like me, your life doesn’t change that much. You don’t get to the top level, 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 my motivation,” said Chacarra.
“I wanted to play in the majors and compete in the Ryder Cup. I like to compete, but not just 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 on.”
And that’s why Chacarra decided to change career paths and go the traditional way.
“My team and I thought the best way forward was to try to get on the DP World Tour, win there, then move up to the PGA Tour. It might take us a year, it might take us six years, but that’s the goal.”
He continued: “I have a lot of goals and I was losing a lot of motivation. I knew it would be difficult because I was suspended for a whole year from the PGA Tour by joining LIV, but thankfully I got invitations from a few sponsors, I got a chance to win in India, and I took it. Now I’m focused on new goals and hopefully I’ll get that PGA Tour card I’ve been dreaming of.”
While Chacarra fell short of earning his full PGA Tour card for 2026, he made significant progress in the world last season. Ranked as low as 523 on OWGR, Chacarra rose to No. 123.
You can read Chacarra’s full interview with Today’s Golfer here.
;)
