Ángel Ayora (-10) and David Puig (-10) have managed to escort Jon Rahm into the top 10. There hasn’t been a Spanish winner this year at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, but achieving three top 10 finishes is not bad at all. It should be valued and appreciated. Both also come with good news in the Race to Dubai. Ayora continues to climb positions and is now in the top 25. Puig has secured his card for next year. He will be a full member of the DP World Tour and can plan his schedule as he wishes. A step forward.
Both leave Madrid with a bittersweet feeling. They are satisfied with the result and performance, but convinced they could have done even better. They are potential winners of this tournament. They know it and want to prove it someday. No rush. After all, Ayora was playing his first Open de España as a professional and Puig his second.
Ángel has achieved his second consecutive top 10 in the DP World Tour. It’s the second time he’s done it this season. He also achieved it at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland and the Irish Open. That’s four top 10 finishes in the last six tournaments. He’s on a roll. This ninth final position allows him to gain four places in the Race and move to 23rd. Paradoxically, however, the tenth card has moved further away. Right now, it’s the Frenchman Martin Couvra who sets that limit, and the man from Malaga is 468.9 points behind. He arrived in Madrid 356 points behind Elvis Smylie, who is currently out.
Ayora does not hide that his main goal from now until the end of the year is the PGA Tour card. He is going to play everything, and in India next week, he will have a good opportunity, as there are many absences. Smylie, Lagergren, Neergaard Petersen, or Haotong Li, among others, will not play. Ángel is always ambitious in his goals. “Of course, the PGA Tour card has been the main goal since the beginning of the year, but right now, I would say the plan is to finish in the top 10 of the Race to Dubai,” he stated after finishing the Open de España. He has also taken a step forward to finish in the top 25 of the ranking, which will grant access to next year’s Open Championship. The young 21-year-old from Marbella hopes to make his debut in the Majors in 2026. As for the siren calls of LIV Golf, Ángel makes his priorities clear: “if I get the PGA Tour card, I’ll swim to the United States.”
Ayora has finished in the top 10, and it can’t even be said that he has displayed his best golf. The most positive news with this dazzling talent is that he still has room for improvement. According to Juan Ochoa, his coach and caddie, his pupil closes the week with the following grades: nine in attitude (“which was needed,” adds Juan), another nine in long game, a four from 105 meters down, including around the green, and an eight in putting. In other words, the average is 7.5. See how much room there is. As for the lesson he takes away, it’s clear: “be patient.”
Puig secures his DP World Tour card for 2026
Puig also left Madrid with a bittersweet taste. On one hand, he was more than satisfied with his ability to recover after two very bad stretches in his rounds this week. Today’s started with a miscalculation on the 8th hole. He had 84 meters, and his caddie measured 94. He overshot the green, made a bogey, and admits it affected him. Then came another bogey on the 10th and a double bogey on the 11th. That’s the bad part. The good part was his spectacular reaction, with three consecutive birdies from the 13th to the 15th (“the one on the 13th with a bit of luck,” he admitted) and one more on the 18th. “I’m proud of how we came back. The poor guy made a mistake and was more affected and upset than I was. If you had given me this top 10 after the 5th hole, I wouldn’t have taken it, but after that black hole, I’m happy.”
Puig learns quickly and always learns. From this Open de España, he takes away a clear lesson: “it’s evident that I need to improve when I’m at the top of tournaments with chances to win. Almost always, something happens that makes me go backwards. I need to work on this and improve,” he points out.
Puig sees himself as a future winner of the Open de España. It couldn’t be this year, but he will keep trying. Just as he will keep trying to get into the Masters and the Open Championship. His next tournament is the Hong Kong Open of the Asian Tour, a week that also offers a spot for the Masters and the Open. He will also play in Saudi Arabia by the end of the year, also an Asian Tour event, and the two Australian events of the DP World Tour. He already had the invitations secured, but he won’t need them, as he will enter as a member of the European Circuit. Much credit must be given to what the man from La Garriga has achieved. He has secured the card in just six tournaments.
