This story we’re about to tell you is a little tale. A very journalistic tale. It has to do with the inner workings of a writer’s job. It’s about information seen from the other side of the ropes. We hope you find it interesting.
At TenGolf, we had long assumed David Puig’s qualification for the PGA Championship. In fact, when Chacarra secured his invitation through the DP World Tour, we didn’t hesitate to announce that we would have four Spaniards at Quail Hollow: Jon Rahm, qualified as the Masters champion in 2023, Sergio García, invited by the PGA of America, Eugenio Chacarra, through the DP World Tour, and David Puig, also invited by the PGA of America based on world ranking.
Well, this very afternoon, around half-past three Spanish peninsular time, you’ll see now that the chronology is important, we realised that we had gone too far in assuming Puig’s presence. We contacted the golfer from La Garriga for another matter related to his performance in LIV Golf this year, which you will soon see published in TenGolf, and he informed us that he has not yet received the invitation from the PGA of America. In other words, he doesn’t have a spot in the 2025 PGA Championship. The concern is more than evident. There are only ten days left to tee off at the 1st. It wasn’t good news. For now, there were only three Spaniards in the PGA.
It’s time to publish the news that David still doesn’t have his presence in the PGA Championship secured and that the matter, at the very least, is a bit worrying. To add context to the story, we delved into what happened in the last three PGAs, and the situation, far from becoming clearer, became even more muddled. David is currently ranked 107th in the world ranking. It was, therefore, a matter of seeing what had happened with the players who were in that position in the years 2022, 2023, and 2024 a week before the PGA. If it were a weather forecast, the expert would say: there are two options, it might rain, and it might not rain.
In 2022, everyone in the world ranking up to the 108th position got in, although many of them, including the 107th, who was Adam Hadwin, were qualified through the PGA Tour. This didn’t resolve much. In 2023, confusion. Matthew NeSmith, ranked 107th, wasn’t invited, although the 109th, Nicolai Hojgaard, was. And in 2024, more confusion. The 107th was Kevin Yu, and he wasn’t invited either. However, precisely David Puig, who was ranked 109th, did receive a spot, although it’s worth remembering that he had won on the Asian Tour earlier in the year. So anything could happen. Maximum uncertainty. Somehow it seemed that the 107th was cursed.
We were in the middle of writing the news, about to post it on the website, when we received a message from Puig himself. It’s a screenshot. An email from the PGA of America dated at 19:49 this Monday evening. The title is as follows:
The uncertainty and waiting are over. The good news has arrived. The writer, very gladly, has to change the entire news piece. It’s no problem. May it always be so, for a good cause. In the end, TenGolf was right… although it’s true that we had gone too far. Spanish golf will, therefore, have four representatives at Quail Hollow. Four chances to conquer the Spanish Grand Slam. Let’s see if 2025 is about Grand Slams of all kinds and conditions.
Postscript: in hindsight, it seemed obvious that the 107th in the world couldn’t miss the 107th edition of the PGA Championship. It would be almost like disrupting the balance of the planets.
