This year, in May, the PGA Championship will be played for the fourth time at the Valhalla Golf Club (Louisville, Kentucky). At the moment, Spanish golf only has the presence of one player assured, Jon Rahm. Just one. And it’s curious, because the last time only one Spaniard attended this tournament was in 1996 (Miguel Ángel Jiménez), the year in which Valhalla was precisely making its debut as a major venue. Since then, the representation has always been more numerous, with a minimum of two players (years 1997, 1998, 2002, 2016 and 2021), and a historical maximum of seven (year 2012).
However, there are still almost three months left for the dispute of this Major. And there is a certain margin of manoeuvre for some Spanish players, who could still, for example, storm the top 100 in the world and earn a place. Let’s not fool ourselves, it’s complicated. It could always happen that someone, coming from the depths of the world ranking, won several tournaments and reached the top 100, dreaming is free, but for now it’s better to focus on the more realistic options.
What options are those? With the world ranking in hand, in theory the most likely would be that of Pablo Larrazábal, current Number 108 in the world. The problem is that the Barcelona native, who is going to be a father in early April, is not going to play any more tournaments until the DP World Tour dates in Japan and China, at the end of April and beginning of May, and it would only be in those two tournaments where his presence at the PGA will be played.
Jorge Campillo is Number 111 and for now he is playing this same week the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in Florida, where juicy world ranking points are distributed. The Extremaduran, who will still be in the United States for a while making use of his playing rights on the PGA Tour, has it in his hands. Adrián Otaegui is Number 118 and, for starters, he is playing this week in South Africa the SDC Championship of the European circuit. Then, before the PGA he will still play a good number of tournaments, undoubtedly. He also has it in his hands.
David Puig, for his part, current Number 133 in the world, has it more difficult because the LIV tournaments do not count, but he is going to play the International Series of Macao, from the Asian Tour, in mid-March, to give himself an option. Finally, we have Nacho Elvira, who has just stormed the top 200 in the ranking with his second place in Kenya (he is Number 186 in the world). He is still very far away, but he is going to play several tournaments before the deadline and seems in great form. Let’s not rule him out. In the best case scenario, we might have four players in Valhalla, maybe five or six players if everything goes well. In the worst case, only one. Again, in Valhalla.
