Ex-LIV winner’s grievances underscore what’s broken with pro golf

When then-amateur star Eugenio Chacarra joined LIV Golf in the summer of 2022, it was another coup for the so-called “rebel league,” which already had fractured the men’s professional game by signing away from the PGA Tour the likes of Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.

At the time, Chacarra was an Oklahoma State standout and the No. 2 amateur in the world in the world . The Spaniard’s decision to go to LIV was a warning sign that the PGA Tour might be in danger of having its talent pipeline eroded by LIV’s checkbook. If many of the Tour’s stars and some of its potential future stars left, what then?

While Koepka, DeChambeau and Johnson were Phase 1 for LIV, players like Chacarra were supposed to be the next step for the breakaway league. Instead, less than three years later, Chacarra is now in LIV’s rearview mirror after the league didn’t renew his contract, and Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs team didn’t retain him after he finished the season in the “Drop Zone.”

On his way out the door, Chacarra aired some of his LIV grievances in multiple interviews last week, most notably with Flushing It Golf and Hugo Costa, a journalist for Golf Channel Latin America.

Chacarra’s gripes with LIV were not groundbreaking, and they are unlikely to damage the league, which starts its fourth season in a few weeks. But the 24-year-old’s issues with a league that’s about “only money” were a lesson in — and further proof of — what has plagued the upper echelon of pro golf during this period of turmoil, and why there’s seemingly no end in sight.

Broken trust

Chacarra’s main beef centered on something LIV’s detractors pointed to from the outset as one of the league’s fundamental problems: its inability to deliver world rankings points and starts in major championships for those not already exempt.

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

“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.”

Indeed, Greg Norman’s pledge to deliver OWGR points and access to the majors helped lure several players to the upstart league. Norman, who was LIV’s first commissioner, has yet to deliver on that promise, and it’s unclear how much of a good-faith effort LIV made to comply with the OWGR criteria before withdrawing its application.

From the outside, it appeared as if Norman and LIV felt as if they could strong-arm the governing bodies into submission instead of conforming to the criteria. “What are you going to do, not give Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau world rankings points?” As it turned out, the answer was a resounding yes, leaving players like Chacarra in limbo.

Consequences

As many players are learning during golf’s period of unrest, actions have consequences — including Sergio Garcia’s reported inability to be a Ryder Cup captain and the one-year suspension that Chacarra now must serve before chasing his PGA Tour card, taking the money didn’t come without cost.

Chacarra’s career — at least as he framed it — was just a pawn in a global golf war. Now, it’s up to him to pick up the pieces.

“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.

“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.”

News

Chacarra told Flushing It that he has calls lined up with the PGA Tour to see if there are ways for him to compete sooner.

“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,” Chacarra said.

But for now, Chacarra will have to settle for the Asian Tour. He said he’s hopeful he’ll get a few sponsor invites on the DP World Tour.

Ego

During his conversation with Flushing It, Chacarra also spoke about world No. 6 Ludvig Aberg. The two competed against each other in college when Aberg was at Texas Tech and Chacarra at Oklahoma State.

Aberg’s star has had a meteoric rise since he turned pro. The 25-year-old Swede won the 2023 RSM Classic, finished second at the 2024 Masters and acquitted himself well in Europe’s winning week at the 2023 Ryder Cup.

Chacarra won LIV Bangkok in 2022 but didn’t receive the same treatment that he sees Aberg getting.

“I’m a winner and I was never treated like a winner,” Chacarra said. “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.”

The irony here is that it was Chacarra’s decision to join LIV that spurred the PGA Tour to create two direct pathways for college golfers to earn direct access to the PGA Tour. Aberg was the first player to earn status by finishing at the top of the PGA Tour University rankings.

Since then, Aberg has soared while Chacarra battled injuries on LIV, carding just two top-10 finishes since his win at LIV Bangkok.

Self-preservation

The quotes from Chacarra make for a good story, but it’s important to note that the 24-year-old could have been picked up by another LIV team had there been any interest. Both Bubba Watson and Branden Grace were “relegated” but returned to their teams.

Chacarra’s contract was not renewed, and there does not appear to have been interest in bringing him back. Would he have still left LIV had there been interest? Only Chacarra can answer that.

With Chacarra career at an early crossroads, it’s understandable that he would go public with his gripes and position himself as a player willing to flip back to the PGA Tour. The Tour has lost a number of players since LIV’s debut but hasn’t seen anyone rejoin due to what Hudson Swafford described as a murky path back.

“I don’t know, the Tour has a hard stance on a [one-] year suspension [for players who joined LIV Golf]; there’s some really grey stuff going on with LIV and I didn’t know if I’d be back with LIV,” Swafford told Golf Channel in December about trying to return to the Tour. “I tried to go back [to the PGA Tour] last year, talked to [Jason Gore, the Tour’s senior vice president, player advisor to the commissioner] and [Monahan] and thought I did everything pretty cordially, just told them how I felt. They could never give me an answer.”

After playing for three seasons on LIV, Chacarra said he’s financially set for life. But he still has golf dreams to fulfill and, for the moment, few avenues by which to pursue them Taking an open shot at LIV and signaling to the Tour that he wants to be one of the first to return is just Chacarra understandably doing what most players at the top level of pro golf have been doing since the fracture — looking out for themselves.

It’s what got us here in the first place, and why we’re still here.