Former LIV Golf winner rips league, says new goal is chasing PGA Tour card

Posted by Admin January 10, 2025 Golf

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Eugenio Chacarra has a new professional goal: to play on the PGA Tour.

There’s an issue, though. His first three years as a professional have been played on the LIV Golf League. After not being re-signed, he has to find a new home for 2025, and if he wants to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event, he has to wait a year since his last LIV event to be eligible for status on the PGA Tour.

There remains a year ban for golfers who have competed in LIV events if they want to play on the PGA Tour or any sanctioned events.

Chacarra, the former world No. 2 amateur who turned pro to join LIV Golf out of Oklahoma State, won in his fifth start at LIV Golf Bangkok in 2022. But heading into 2025, he’s in the middle of a career shift. A member of Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC, Chacarra wasn’t re-signed ahead of 2025, and he chose to try to find a pathway to the PGA Tour in 2025 instead of playing for LIV Golf.

Chacarra spoke with Flushing It Golf, who posted their conversation on social media. In it details LIV Golf’s unfulfilled promises and a 24-year-old’s chase for a lifelong goal after stepping out and trying to be a part of something different to begin his career.

“I’m thankful for everything LIV has given me,” Chacarra told Flushing It. “I’m 24 years old, and my life is set. I don’t know if it will work out for the best or not, but I know this is what my heart tells me is right and it works for my motivation to wake up and grind and get better, and to say I can be a PGA Tour player one day.”

LIV is no stranger to poaching young talent from the amateur ranks. There was Chacarra and David Puig, also a member of Fireballs GC. Chacarra is being replaced by Luis Masaveu, a fellow Spaniard who was a semifinalist at the 2024 U.S. Amateur and recently turned pro. Then there’s Caleb Surratt, who last year left Tennessee during his sophomore year to join Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII.

But for Chacarra, who is one of a handful of golfers to win a LIV event, he felt like an outcast and said a lot of what he was promised wasn’t delivered.

“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes. How you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup,” Chacarra continued.

“When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them. I was the first young guy, then the others came after I made the decision. But OWGR and majors still hasn’t happened.

“It’s frustrating, but I’m excited for the new opportunity and to see where my game takes me.”

Chacarra sees a player like Ludvig Aberg, who sits sixth in the Official World Golf Ranking, and how his PGA Tour victory at the 2023 RSM Classic has elevated him to a new level in the professional game. Yet when Chacarra won, nothing changed.

Chacarra thinks he and Aberg are similar, but he wasn’t able to show that with the limited access. Last year, Aberg was in contention on Sunday at the Masters.

“I’m a winner and I was never treated like a winner. On the PGA Tour, Ludvig Aberg has one win and I have one win on LIV. He has one win on the European Tour and I have one win on the International Series on the Asian Tour. So we have similar careers, but he has way more experience and plays way more big tournaments, but we have the same wins.

“We have performed similar. What tours I can play on, I have won. Same with him. But he’s the No. 6 player in the world and everyone talks about him. But on LIV, I’m the only young guy who’s won, and they never talk about me. They always talk about the same guys. I’m not blaming them, they probably know more, but they don’t really care about the young guys much.

“So this decision is what’s best for me. I’m very thankful for what they’ve done, but my mind is different now and I want to get to what I was dreaming about when I was little. Because obviously LIV didn’t exist when I was growing up. I was watching Tiger Woods winning on the PGA Tour, and I want to do that.”

Chacarra told Flushing It he has calls lined up with PGA Tour officials to see whether there are avenues for him to be able to compete sooner. He entered second stage of Q-School but was told he couldn’t play because of the ban.

“I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing to get myself on to the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour as soon as possible.”

He anticipates teeing it up later this month at the International Series India, an Asian Tour event. He is also hoping to get some sponsor invites on the DP World Tour.

But, for the first time, a former LIV player has detailed promises made and not kept. And now, he’s in search of something he dreamed about as a kid.