David Puig will play this week in the BMW International Open at least for the first two days alongside Luke Donald. It has been a specific request from the Ryder Cup captain. It will be their first time together in a tournament. Competing. He wants to see him.
From the moment they tee off this Thursday, there will be 85 days until the opening day of the Ryder at Bethpage. It’s no coincidence. Puig’s name is highlighted in red in the captain’s and his assistants’ notebook. They like him a lot. It’s somewhat similar to the case of Ludvig Aberg two years ago in Italy.
Everyone is aware that Puig has few chances of qualifying by points due to playing in LIV Golf, but they would be delighted to find reasons to choose him. The captain has six discretionary invitations. Half of the team. Now it’s up to David to provide reasons with good performances in the less than three months remaining until the Ryder. Starting this week in Munich.
It’s not the first time the core of the European team has set their sights on Puig. Edoardo Molinari, Luke Donald‘s right-hand man, played with the young man from La Garriga at his own request in last year’s Acciona Open de España at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid. The result was spectacular. Puig played in the star match on Sunday alongside Jon Rahm and Ángel Hidalgo. The Italian took good note of Puig’s abilities there, and now the captain wants to corroborate it. It’s not so much about seeing his golf, something they have thoroughly tested, but his behaviour, getting to know him a bit better, more directly, his reactions on the course, his attitude towards setbacks or when the round is going well. It’s almost more a matter of feeling and chemistry than something technical. Puig and Donald will share the round with Englishman Jordan Smith, another who has been on the European Ryder Cup team’s radar for some time.
It will be Puig’s twelfth tournament on the DP World Tour since he debuted at the Open de España back in 2021. He has played five Majors and six regular tournaments. In the latter, he has always made the cut, with a record of two third places and four top 10s. Four out of six. Impressive. This year alone, he has played in Ras al Khaimah and Bahrain, with his record showing a third and a fourth place.
Puig is one of the 15 Spaniards playing this week at the BMW International Open. There are other very enticing matches. For example, Josele Ballester will play with Wenyi Ding and Casey Jarvis, two other very young talents in world golf. Sergio García, for his part, arrives in Germany this Wednesday after attending the funeral of Angela’s grandmother, his wife, and shares tee time with Adrien Saddier, the latest DP World Tour winner, and Kristoffer Reitan. Additionally, Ángel Hidalgo will play with Adrián Otaegui, and Ángel Ayora will do so with Pablo Larrazábal, a winner in these lands. An interesting match also for Chacarra, alongside Patrick Reed and Ferguson, or Joel Moscatel, who will share the first two rounds with Wilco Nienaber.
By the way, speaking of tee times and the Ryder Cup. Edoardo Molinari is not going to waste time this week either. He will play with Rasmus Neergaard Petersen and Matti Schmid, two other young players who are absolutely on the radar of Ryder Cup Europe.
