By Kevin Rademeyer, Sports Journalist.
The PGA Tour has granted Eugenio Chacarra an exemption into next week’s Puerto Rico Open, offering the Spaniard a fresh opportunity as he seeks a route back to the sport’s traditional pathways.
The tournament runs opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational and will mark one of the first appearances by a former LIV Golf player in a standard Tour event. For Chacarra, 25, the invitation represents both validation and a renewed pursuit of a long stated ambition.
“My goal since I was little is to be on the PGA Tour,” he said during a media call announcing the move.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity.”
Chacarra joined LIV Golf in 2022 as one of its emerging young signings and secured a victory in its inaugural season. He later added titles on the Asian Tour in 2023 and the DP World Tour in 2025.
Yet despite that success, he has been candid about his experience within the breakaway league, recently acknowledging that his motivation waned during his final year.
‘I think I was losing a little motivation to get better,” he said. “It was time for me to move on and start a new pathway in my professional career.”
Chacarra’s departure from LIV followed the 2024 season when he finished in the league’s open zone and was not re signed by Fireballs GC, captained by Sergio Garcia. While his options in free agency remain unclear, he has described the reset as necessary.
Raised on broadcasts of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, Chacarra said his ambitions had always centred on competing and winning on those circuits. “LIV didn’t exist when I was little,” he noted. “That’s what I dream of playing and winning.”
His recent form suggests the pursuit is not fanciful. Victory at the 2025 Hero Indian Open secured entry into the DP World Tour’s leading events, and he followed with a tie for fourth at the Volvo China Open alongside further top ten finishes in Italy and at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Currently 27th in the Race to Dubai standings, he remains within reach of one of the ten PGA Tour cards awarded via that ranking. “If I keep playing well, I also have a chance to get my PGA Tour card through that,” he said.
The Puerto Rico Open will be his first non co sanctioned PGA Tour start, though he has previously appeared in the Genesis Scottish Open. He framed the week in stark terms. “This is like a major for me,” he said. “I’m going to try to perform the best I can.”
Chacarra, who lives in Tulsa and is a member at Southern Hills, joins a growing list of players navigating between LIV, the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour as professional golf’s fractured landscape continues to evolve. Recent months have brought eligibility changes, new agreements and selective returns, underlining the fluidity that now defines the men’s game.
For Chacarra, however, the equation is simple. The opportunity in Puerto Rico may amount to little. Equally, it could be the first decisive step towards the tour he has long regarded as home.