Spanish golf will have three representatives at the Masters Tournament at Augusta 2026, which takes place in two weeks. All three are active past champions. No one else has managed to qualify for the event. David Puig was the closest, but he needed to win the Hero Indian Open this week and that will no longer be possible. The young Spanish golfer missed the cut and, therefore, is left without options, except a last-minute invitation that is not really expected.
Puig left for the hotel on Friday night with a virtually impossible mission. He needed a two-under-par across his final two holes of the second round, which were pending for Saturday morning due to lack of light, and it wasn’t to be. The La Garriga man went all out for it. It was like flipping a coin. It wasn’t for lack of aggression. But it came up tails. Two bogeys at 17 and 18 — goodbye India. This is the second cut he has missed in his entire career in regular DP World Tour events. He adds the Australian Open at the end of 2025, the week after his victory at the Australian PGA Championship.
There is not much to reproach Puig for. The Fireballs player has covered more than 30,000 kilometres in a month with the aim of earning a place in Augusta. His journey began in Hong Kong, then Singapore, the third week was South Africa and it finished these days in India. You cannot say he didn’t try.
Thus, the three players who will represent Spanish golf at the Masters will be José María Olazábal, two-time winner at Augusta (1994 and 1999), Sergio García (2017) and Jon Rahm (2023). Four Green Jackets trying to represent as best they can. Each of them, obviously, arrives at the Masters with different aims. Olazábal aims to enjoy his best week of the year and to show himself as competitive as ever, perhaps even fighting to make the cut, while Sergio will try to reconnect with that elusive Augusta spark and thus give himself a chance to finish off a great week, and Jon is looking for nothing other than his second Green Jacket.
With Puig’s withdrawal from the Hero Indian Open, eight Spaniards remain in contention. Eugenio Chacarra tees off this Saturday as leader. In addition, Quim Vidal, Manu Elvira, Jorge Campillo, Nacho Elvira, Iván Cantero, Ángel Ayora and Sebas García have made the cut. Ayora completed his second round with a par at the 17th and a bogey at the 18th for a total of +1. The biggest surprise of the tournament, beyond the Spaniards, is that Akshay Bhatia missed the cut. DLF plays no favourites.
