Former LIV Golf winner given PGA Tour sponsor exemption

Former LIV Golf member Eugenio Chacarra is receiving a sponsor exemption into a PGA Tour event next week, the latest sign that the tour is gradually reopening its doors to players who once defected to the Saudi-backed circuit.

Chacarra, 25, was once considered one of the brightest young talents in the world. A former All-American at Oklahoma State, he reached No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking before turning pro and joining LIV in 2022. He won in just his fifth professional start, at LIV's Bangkok event, and seemed poised for a long run with the breakaway league.

But the shine faded quickly. Chacarra struggled in his following seasons and grew disillusioned with what he described as broken promises around major exemptions and world-ranking points, the two currencies that matter most to a player with ambitions beyond a paycheck.

"On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money," he told Flushing It Golf last year. "It doesn't matter if you finish thirtieth or first, only money."

The money, it turned out, wasn't enough. Chacarra left LIV after the 2024 season, citing a creeping loss of motivation and a desire to compete in environments where results shape a career. He landed on the DP World Tour on a sponsor's invite and wasted little time making his case, winning the 2025 Hero Indian Open to earn full-time status. On Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced he will receive a spot in next week's Puerto Rico Open, an alternate event running opposite the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Speaking to media, Chacarra was candid about why he walked away from LIV and where his ambitions have always truly lived.

"I think I was losing a little motivation to get better out there on LIV at the last year I was there, so it was time for me to move on and start a new pathway in my professional career," he said. "Obviously I dreamed since I was little—obviously LIV didn't exist when I was little. I grew up watching the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour, and that's what I dream of playing and winning, and that's what my heart and my ambition was. So we thought it was the best for me to move forward and try to get on the PGA Tour."

He also reflected on the adjustment of returning to stroke-play competition with cuts, varied tee times and full fields — the unglamorous machinery of professional golf that LIV stripped away.

"It gave me a little more of what real golf is," Chacarra said of his time on the European Tour. "Having a cut, having to grind, playing every week with a lot of players. It's fun to see where my game is, where I need to improve, what areas I need to work on to be one of the best and get on the PGA Tour quick."

Chacarra enters the week 141st in the Official World Golf Ranking. Last year, James Piot became the first ex-LIV player to receive a PGA Tour sponsor's exemption, competing in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. But the landscape has shifted considerably since then. With Brooks Koepka having returned to Tour play and Patrick Reed soon to follow, Chacarra's invitation reflects something more than a one-off gesture, a quiet but unmistakable signal that the tour is willing to welcome those from LIV, provided they're willing to work their way back.