David Puig has practically secured his presence at the PGA Championship with his two brilliant performances at the Ras al Khaimah Championship and the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship. For the Masters Tournament, the first of the year, it is really challenging.
Breaking into the top 50 in the world by April seems an impossible mission, although if the young golfer from La Garriga has shown anything, it’s that one must be very cautious when labeling any of his goals as impossible. In any case, it would involve winning, and probably more, a tournament that counts for the world ranking by April to have a chance of automatic qualification. The other alternative would be to perform extraordinarily well in the first LIV Golf tournaments, to the point of catching the attention of the Augusta officials and receiving an invitation.
However, beyond the Masters, which would be a latent goal, Puig has already set a specific date for his next major hunt. It would be from 20th to 23rd March at the International Series Macao of the Asian Tour. The Spanish player plans to play it, among other factors, because it offers three spots for the Open Championship. It was precisely this way he secured his place at Royal Troon a year ago, after winning the Malaysian Open of the Asian Tour. We will likely also see Eugenio López Chacarra in Macao.
For now, the Royal & Ancient has not made public the list of tournaments that will be qualifiers for the Open. One has already been held, the Australian Open, but the rest have not been announced. In any case, Ten Golf can already inform you that Macao will be one of them. Without a doubt, it is a consequence of the good relations existing between the institution that governs the British Open and the PIF, the sovereign public investment fund that oversees LIV Golf. In fact, as we have already mentioned in this medium and in the Bola Provisional, the Royal and Ancient is now responsible for coordinating the maintenance and preparation of the LIV courses. It will be the first time that a tournament from the International Series, tournaments created by the PIF within its agreement with the Asian Tour, will be a qualifier for the Open.
Last year there were twelve qualifying tournaments for the British. It started at the Joburg, a DP World Tour event in November 2023, and ended with the Scottish Open, the week before the British. By this time of year, two qualifying tournaments had already been held, and the third was in mid-February. The official Open website states that the calendar of these qualifying tournaments would be announced at the beginning of 2025, but we are already in February and there is no news. We will likely know soon.
Speaking of Puig’s schedule, his plan is to play in Saudi and Australia for the first two LIV tournaments, rest for two weeks, as he comes from playing the two desert events of the DP World Tour, and then play consecutively in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macao. Two weeks after the International Series, the LIV in Miami takes place.
