He won on LIV, then criticized league. Now, he’s playing PGA Tour event

Eugenio Chacarra has had the PGA Tour in his sights ever since LIV Golf dumped him after last season.

This week at the co-sanctioned 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, the former LIV Golf player will make his first start at a PGA Tour event since the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship, where, as an amateur, he missed the cut. That was before LIV Golf. Before golf’s schism. Before Chacarra decided to join the breakaway league instead of pursuing a PGA Tour card.

Much has happened since then, both for Chacarra and the game at large.

The former Oklahoma State standout left Stillwater, Okla., to join the breakaway league in 2022. As a member of Fireballs GC, Chacarra won in Bangkok and was one of the most promising players on the Saudi-backed tour. But struggles came for him over the next two years, and he was dropped by LIV Golf after last season, making him a player without a home.

After leaving LIV Golf, Chacarra criticized the league for being about “only money.” He called out the league for failing to deliver on its promise to provide OWGR points and access to majors. Charcarra did say he was “thankful” to LIV for the financial security it has provided him, but his goal now was to find a way to earn a PGA Tour card.

“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes,” Chacarra told Flushing It in January. “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.”

News

Characarra relied on sponsor exemptions to get starts on the DP World Tour early in the season before winning at the Hero Indian Open. That win earned him DP World Tour status for the rest of the season. He currently sits at 19 in the DP World Tour’s Order of Merit, with the top 10 not already exempt earning PGA Tour cards.

“It means everything,” Chacarra said after winning the Hero Indian Open. “I decided when I was an amateur to go to another side of golf [LIV]. Coming out [of LIV], I didn’t know where I was going to play but I stayed patient.

“I know when I play my best, I am one of the best players in the world. I’ve already proved that. It’s just awesome. It needs to sink in, but I’m really proud, and I’m just happy.”

Before joining LIV, Chacarra made four starts on the PGA Tour, including a T45 at the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship. Since joining LIV, he has made two major starts, missing the cut at the 2024 U.S. Open and the 2025 PGA Championship.

Due to his involvement with LIV Golf, Chacarra is suspended from the PGA Tour for one year. That ban lasts through Sept. 23 of this year. But with the 2025 Scottish Open being a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour, Chacarra got into the field via the Category 3 Criteria, which goes to “winners of Race to Dubai Ranking Tournaments with a prize fund equal to or above $2 million.”

Chacarra becomes the third former member of LIV Golf to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event this season.

Laurie Canter became the first former member of LIV to play at the Players Championship in March. James Piot received a sponsor’s invite to the 2025 Rocket Classic.

Chacarra will be the first winner of a LIV event to play on the PGA Tour since the schism, but he hopes his arrival in Scotland is the start of his journey to full-time status on the PGA Tour and not just another footnote in golf’s ongoing civil conflict.