David Puig has no problem recalculating goals and ambitions on the fly. Even less so when this slight change of plans comes as a result of a victory like the one at the Malaysia Open last Sunday.
The young golfer from La Garriga started the year 2024 with several clear wishes: to win individually in LIV Golf, to win on any other circuit where he can play, to qualify for the US Open and to get into the Open Championship. Two of those four goals were already crossed off in Malaysia. Double check.
In this first list of challenges to be met in 2024, neither the Masters nor the PGA Championship were included. Not for lack of desire, but because they really seemed like goals out of reach for a golfer whose main circuit is LIV Golf and, therefore, does not add to the world ranking. You know, to get into the Masters you basically have to be among the top 50 in the world or have won a PGA Tour tournament and for the PGA Championship a spot in the top 100 worldwide is required.
Puig ended the year 2023 in 239th place in the ranking, or in other words, far from those two situations explained. However, his ambition to grow and the desire to play Majors led him to play in Malaysia. The victory has put him directly into the Open at Royal Troon and, at the same time, has opened the doors of the PGA Championship. Puig, in statements to Ten Golf and the podcast Bola Provisional, does not hesitate: “let’s see if I can have a couple of good tournaments in the next few weeks on the Asian Tour and hopefully, if things go well for me, I get into the top 100 and maybe they can invite me to the PGA, something I hadn’t even considered before. It’s an option and it’s a short-term goal,” he explains.
For now, David is going to play the International Series of Oman this week, an Asian Tour tournament that, by the way, is played on the Almouj Golf course, a Greg Norman design that has a lot of links style, and where he can again earn world ranking points. The next two weeks will be LIV, in Jeddah and in Hong Kong, and just the following week another International Series in Macau is played, where Puig has not ruled out his presence. That would be, therefore, seven consecutive weeks competing. Any effort is small to be in the main events of the world calendar.
In addition, Puig plans to play the US Open qualifiers, just like he did last year, with the idea of passing them and playing this Major again, where remember that he already made the cut in 2023.
As for the Open, Puig admits that it is not the Major that excites him the most. “I’m not a big fan of links, with the wind and the bushes, but obviously I’m very excited to be able to play this Major that has so much history and tradition. I’m delighted and very happy,” he says. Royal Troon will be a good opportunity to reconcile with a style of golf that does not always catch the eye at first.
Finally, regarding his victory in Malaysia, Puig highlights above all how well he played. “The weekend has been a bit heavy. Making twenty birdies in the last 40 holes, twenty birdies and twenty pars, is hard to believe, but it happened. The truth is that Saturday and Sunday I played very similar to the first two days, but I didn’t make any mistakes from the tee and I made the putts I had to make. After the birdie on hole 12 on the last day I thought I would have a bit more cushion, but they were pushing and that helped me stay focused until the end,” he concludes.
