The victory of Nacho Elvira at the Soudal Open comes with several benefits. As usual, winning a tournament on the DP World Tour immediately leads to significant jumps in various rankings, while opening doors that seemed closed. One of the first consequences is to get fully involved in the fight for the PGA Tour cards through the Race to Dubai.
Elvira takes a giant leap in the DP World Tour ranking. He moves from 35th to 9th place. In this way, he is already knocking on the doors of the PGA Tour. As you already know, the top ten in the Race to Dubai at the end of the year, who do not already have playing rights, will get the American card, just as happened at the end of 2023 with, among others, Jorge Campillo. Right now, Nacho Elvira would be the fourth PGA Tour card, while Adrián Otaegui, who is fourteenth in the Race to Dubai, would get the eighth.
In addition, with his victory, he also takes a giant leap in the world ranking. He will be around 135th place, depending also on what happens tonight in the conclusion of the Charles Schwab Challenge of the PGA Tour. He would be very close to matching and improving the highest position that the Cantabrian has so far occupied in the world ranking, the 126th.
On the other hand, it is the 207th victory of Spanish golf on the DP World Tour, the 34th since 2017 and the second in a row, as the previous regular tournament of the European circuit was won by Adrián Otaegui (Volvo China Open). The law of communicating vessels. Until Otaegui’s triumph there were 343 days of drought and now Spain has won two in just 21.
Another fight that Nacho Elvira gets fully involved in is the qualification for the Paris Olympics. The battle tightens and promises to be exciting. It ends in less than a month, specifically on June 17, after the US Open, and right now there are mathematical and very reasonable options for up to five players to accompany Jon Rahm, the only one who has it assured: David Puig, Adrián Otaegui, Jorge Campillo, Nacho Elvira and Pablo Larrazábal.
Beyond Elvira, the situation of the Armada in the Race to Dubai is really good. In addition to Elvira’s ninth position and Otaegui’s fourteenth, we have Larrazábal, Del Rey and Manu Elvira among the top 50, who qualify for the Dubai Final, and Cantero, Hidalgo, Tarrio, Sebastián García Rodríguez, Campillo and Cabrera Bello, among the first 113 who keep the card this year.
Speaking of the Armada, beautiful image as Nacho’s victory in Belgium was confirmed. Many of the Spaniards present at the tournament were waiting for him to congratulate him, starting, of course, with his brother Manu, as well as Hidalgo, Raúl Quirós, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Adolfo Juan Luna or Sebas, among many others. He also received a warm bath from Andrea Pavan, a good friend of his.
