Back in June, college star Eugenio Chacarra announced he would be skipping his senior year at Oklahoma State to turn pro and sign with LIV Golf. Four months later, the 22-year-old has just lit up the breakaway league’s sixth invitational in Bangkok, holding off several major winners to win his first event and pocket just shy of $5 million.
It was a bold, unforeseen, but above all lucrative decision from the Spaniard. A standout collegiate player, Chacarra had risen to No 2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, starring for Oklahoma State to earn All-American status and position himself fourth in the PGA Tour University Rankings ahead of his final year.
Such success meant Chacarra had all but confirmed a place on the Korn Ferry Tour – the circuit giving spots to the top five college players and a further five conditional spots to the next quintet knocking on the door in the rankings.
But instead, Chacarra followed his hero Sergio Garcia to LIV Golf, ditching his final year at OSU after an undisclosed, but unquestionably big money offer came calling from the Saudi Arabia-funded series.
“It wasn’t easy,” he said at the time. “But I feel this was the best for me and for my future, and what LIV is doing is something unbelievable.”
After initially struggling to find his feet – Chacarra’s best finish before Bangkok was T23 – he’ll now be relishing the decision after going wire-to-wire at Stonehill to win both the individual and team events.
An opening 65 was followed up by a fearless 63 as Chacarra stormed clear of the field in Thailand. Despite treacherous weather, and a late Patrick Reed surge on day three, he held his nerve to complete the feat with a score of 19-under-par.
“I’ve got no words,” he said after the victory. “All the hard work I’ve put in since I was little. Finally.”
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In among all Greg Norman’s big hitters to defect to LIV Golf – which includes the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith – Chacarra was an understated, but albeit shrewd sweep.
And while of course the star names were the essential cogs needed to get this much-maligned league going, how Chacarra – alongside other college coups James Piot and David Puig – could now prove just as crucial as LIV Golf builds towards the future.
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