The first (and only) time I spoke with Eugenio Chacarra was before he shortened his name. Then known as a Lopez-Chacarra, the Spaniard was an afterthought in a practice-round group that included Oklahoma State alumni Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff and Morgan Hoffman, who had just made news in a Golf Digest feature that touched on his life with muscular dystrophy.
Fowler was the can’t-miss star. Wolff was ready to replace him. Hoffman was the man of the moment. Chacarra was the Cowboy.
It was a rainy, gray, flat-out ugly day at TPC Potomac, just outside our nation’s capital, when we caught up for a few moments. He was walking off the ninth green, carrying his own bag through the short game area, dressed as one would expect for someone who was competing in the NCAA Championship the next week.
We discussed the course conditions, the state of his game and how he was feeling heading into a PGA Tour event. People love to glean from spreadsheets and strokes-gained tables when trying to identify a future star, but moments like these, in my experience, prove to be invaluable.
When trying to separate from peers, the makeup of the man is much more important than the makeup of the golfer. Chacarra missed the cut at the tournament formerly known as the Wells Fargo Championship, but it didn’t change my takeaways from our chat.
That week, Max Homa was the winner. Cameron Young was the runner-up finisher who was still without a win. Matt Fitzpatrick tied for second without a major championship to his name. Keegan Bradley did, too, having no idea of his Ryder Cup future. The rest of the 10 consisted of Rory McIlroy, Anirban Lahiri, Lanto Griffin, Stewart Cink and James Hahn.
Do you know how much has changed since then?!
Chacarra returned to the collegiate level the following week and won the NCAA Columbus Regional. The next week, he fell in a playoff to freshman Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt at the NCAA Championship. Parker Coody was also in that playoff as William Mouw, David Ford, Chris Gotterup and Sam Bennett rounded out the top 10 on the individual leaderboard.
The confidence Chacarra oozed in our conversation before his missed cut didn’t go anywhere. It was still present. Four years later, it still is. At that moment, it felt as if the PGA Tour was going to get a good one in short order, another OSU product who was going to climb ranks.
Chacarra changed course from the traditionalist point of view. The 22-year-old opted for LIV Golf. He chose to play against some of the best in the world in an era of the unknown. It took him only five starts to nab his first professional victory at LIV Golf Bangkok. He never grabbed another, and a few years later, he was out of the league.
The Asian Tour and the DP World Tour called his name. Chacarra had eyes on more.
“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,” Chacarra said in 2025. “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.”
This past weekend, the now 26-year-old rocketed up to No. 1 in the Race to Dubai standings ahead of Patrick Reed and McIlroy with his win at the India Championship. The triumph marked his third in his last 14 starts and his fourth top-five finish in his last six tournaments.
Chacarra is up to No. 39 in the Official World Golf Rankings. With the top 50 in the OWGR at the end of the calendar year earning an invitation to the Masters, his first trip to Augusta National appears certain. A return to the PGA Tour is, too.
More than the wins and accolades, though, Chacarra’s energy is starting to get noticed. His swing is beginning to get analyzed and compared to others. His pace of play is being applauded, as is his presence on the golf course.
Come 2027, Chacarra’s full-circle journey will be complete. Five years after that Wells Fargo Championship, he will be back on the circuit where his true motivations can be fulfilled. This time, though, he’ll come with a bevy of global experience and hardware to back up the cowboy nature he had walking off that ninth green.
Another national open winner cashes in
Some serious headlines coming out of Japan. The country remains in a currency crisis. It is set to launch its Martian Moons eXploration mission to collect samples from Phobos (one of Mars’ two moons). Oh, and it has another countryman set to represent the Land of the Rising Sun in the Masters.
Yusaku Hosono claimed his home country’s national open at Tarao Country Club this past weekend. By doing so, the 23-year-old earned an invitation to Augusta National and the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2027.
Hosono signed for a final-round 70, finished the week at 13 under and won by two strokes over Yusuke Sakamoto. The win continues a run of quality play from the left-hander, as he now has two wins on the Japan Golf Tour this season to go with two runner-up results. He also finished T33 at the Baycurrent Classic on the PGA Tour.
This past April, Hosono was playing on the Japan Golf Tour, meandering through the circuit. This upcoming April, he will be strolling around Amen Corner and likely be able to spend some time with Japan golf hero and Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama.
The difference a year makes.
Global ambassadorship under fire!
Former (current?) PGA Tour player and NBC analyst Kevin Kisner took shots at McIlroy, the two-time reigning Masters champion, this week on his podcast for stating his desire to grow the game by participating in tournaments like the DP World Tour’s event in India. Kisner’s disdain stemmed from his belief that McIlroy (and others) collected an appearance fee for his play and that his motives may not be in the right place.
McIlroy’s rebuttal stated that two things can be true at once, but lost in all the noise between the two with the microphones was the most succinct answer pertaining to “growing the game.”
First, perhaps we can all agree that “growing the game” is an eye-roll-inducing phrase. It has become more of a cop-out answer than anything since the advent of LIV Golf. It’s the sport’s equivalent of a corporate or marketing buzzword.
No one has ever gotten to the bottom of what it actually means to “grow the game,” and frankly, no one has even been within the realm of doing so since Tiger Woods went on his run of greatness.
In large part, “growing the game” has become a way for professional golfers to excuse money grabs, often by playing at sites that might otherwise be deemed undesirable for social or political reasons.
DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings addressed it nicely when he noted that “growing the game” was not the DP World Tour’s job. It was an honest reaction, and it unsurprisingly ruffled some feathers online. That is a combination I can get behind.
The DP World Tour’s actual job is to stage world-class events with world-class players. A competitive product that produces compelling results with players you want to root for and against is the top of the funnel. It gets potential golfers interested in the game, and then, through downstream mechanisms, that interest can be realized.