Josele Ballester already has his debut as a professional in a regular tournament of the DP World Tour marked in red on his calendar. First, he will play the LIV Golf in Dallas next week, his second tournament since deciding to join the Saudi league, and the following week he will play in Europe. It will be his first foray since turning professional right after the Nationals of the NCAA.
Specifically, he has received an invitation to compete in the BMW International Open, an event to be held from 3 to 6 July at the Golfclub München Eichenried in Munich. Interestingly, his first tournament as a professional in the DP World Tour will coincide with the return of Sergio García. The man from Borriol, his captain in the Fireballs, will play his first European Tour tournament there in Germany since paying the fines and re-registering as a member. That is, his first regular tournament since the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2022. Nearly three years will have passed.
Let us remember that Josele already played a regular tournament of the DP World Tour, but while still an amateur. It was the Acciona Open de España last year at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. He missed the cut. The historic US Amateur champion also played two regular PGA Tour tournaments, the Phoenix Open and the Mexico Open, as well as the three Majors he has already accumulated: Open in 2023, Masters, and US Open in 2025. Thus, the BMW International Open will be his seventh tournament counting towards the world ranking.
With the inclusion of the BMW International Open, Josele will play three consecutive weeks. The first will be in Dallas, at the Maridoe Golf Club, the next will be the aforementioned Munich tournament of the European circuit, and he will close this sequence with the LIV Golf Andalucía in Valderrama. The next would be the Open Championship, a tournament he could have played had he remained an amateur, but for which, once he has turned pro, he would have to qualify. The only possibility would be through the qualifiers, although he does not plan to play them. Due to his world ranking, he could not play one of the final qualifiers, but would have to start in the local ones and could no longer play them due to his own schedule.
In that regard, Sergio García also does not plan to compete in the Open Championship qualifier this year. At least, that is the idea he currently has in his head. He is going to bet everything on qualifying through the LIV ranking after Dallas. A spot is granted to the highest-ranked player within the top 5 who is already exempt for the tournament. Right now, the spot would be for him. He is fourth in the ranking, and the three ahead of him already have their spots secured: Niemann, DeChambeau, and Rahm.
In addition to Sergio and Ballester, as we already reported in Ten Golf, David Puig will play the BMW International Open. From LIV, we will also have Patrick Reed, a regular at this Munich event, as well as, logically, Martin Kaymer. Another interesting presence will be Stephan Jaeger, a German player fully established on the PGA Tour, as well as Matti Schmid.
