The last time Spanish golf had only one representative at the PGA Championship was in Valhalla in 1996. Miguel Ángel Jiménez was the only one who attended. There was a serious risk of history repeating itself this year, again in Valhalla, with Jon Rahm as the only one of our own present at the second Major of the year. However, Adrián Otaegui‘s victory at the Volvo China Open has deactivated the curse.
The golfer from San Sebastián has made it into the PGA, which will be held in two weeks, via the Asian Swing. So, we already have two sure bets on the Kentucky course, half an hour’s drive from Louisville, the city of Muhammad Ali. It will be the seventh Major that Otaegui competes in his career and the fourth PGA, the major he has frequented the most ahead of the Open Championship. He played it for the first time in 2018, finishing in 65th place, and repeated in 2019 and 2023, years in which he missed the cut.
Now, he will try to break that bad streak. The most recent precedent is good. After all, the last Major he played was the Open at Royal Liverpool in July of last year, where he achieved his best result ever in these events: 55th place. Moreover, he moved comfortably in the top positions during the first two days.
The presence of another Spaniard at the PGA Championship should not be ruled out yet. The only two who still have options are Jorge Campillo and David Puig. Campillo needs a stratospheric final round this Sunday at the Byron Nelson to finish very high and earn enough world ranking points to get him close to the top 100 in the standings. More or less, he would need a place among the top six. This Sunday he will start four strokes from that goal.
For his part, Puig has already done everything he had to do. He is not going to play any more tournaments that count for the world ranking, so he needs the PGA of America to consider that what he has done in recent months is enough to earn an invitation. At the moment he is ranked 105th in the world, although he will drop some positions this Sunday. Only from the China tournament has he been surpassed by Otaegui, Svensson and Lombard, to which will be added what happens at the Byron Nelson. The golfer from La Garriga has not yet received any news from the PGA, so all that remains is to keep our fingers crossed.
