Hola from sunny Spain. Technically, you shouldn’t really be reading ‘Nick Rodger on Golf’ because technically, ‘Nick Rodger on Golf’ is on holiday but, such is my sense of duty to you dear readers, I said I’d get my ‘Nick Rodger on Golf’ column over to the sports editor before I was officially on holiday. Are you still following?
Anyway, what happened to that particular plan? Yes, that’s right. It went belly up and I didn’t get it out of the way before I left so I spent yesterday by the pool at our hotel, fighting off a deadline with my bare fists while everybody else lay around sizzling and burning like hog roasts birling on a spit.
As you can imagine, it’s pretty bloomin’ toasty out here in Mallorca. In fact, it’s so hot, I wouldn’t be surprised if the picture byline of my good self on this page makes me look as if I’ve just been napalmed. Can you plop a squirting of Factor 50 onto it, please?
Given that we are in Spanish territory, I thought I’d flourish this week’s wafflings with a taste of España.
On the DP World Tour the other day, Eugenio Chacarra won the Italian Open, his second victory in a row on the European circuit following his success at the KLM Open earlier in the month.
Those of you who absorb golf and golfers with the same kind of devotion that the lazy sunbathers out here absorb the sun will probably be aware of Chacarra and his back story.
The casual observers among you, who perhaps rely on this column for an occasional dose of insight and illumination – blimey, keep the faith will you? – possibly don’t know your Chacarra from your elbow.
Well, Chacarra was a former world amateur No 2 and a star of the US college scene at Oklahoma University. He turned professional in 2022 and immediately signed with LIV Golf.
At that time, of course, the world of men’s pro golf was in a completely bamboozled state as the LIV gravy train thundered through the established tours like a locomotive with a cowcatcher attached to it steaming into a herd of dazed cattle.
In LIV’s frenzied, disruptive recruitment drive, Chacarra was the first amateur stand-out to take a chomp out of the money-soaked Saudi carrot that was dangling on a golden stick.
Whatever signing on fee he got – he did once say it was “life-changing” – Chacarra went on to make upwards of $18 million on the LIV series.
The 26-year-old was jettisoned from LIV after a poor 2024 campaign and returned to square one. Given the amount he earned in a couple of seasons on the rebel circuit, though, he was hardly back to the auld claes and porridge.
In an interview with Flushing it Golf in the wake of his LIV departure a couple of years ago, Chacarra reflected on life on LIV.
"I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes,” he said. “On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money.
“It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Ryder Cup.
“When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR (world ranking points which it eventually gained this year) and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them.”
He wasn’t the first to fall for that chat up line, was he? Money can buy you many things. But it can’t buy you golfing fulfillment.
Chacarra may have been set for life financially, but professionally he was in a no man’s land. His was a cautionary tale.
Those of you reading this will no doubt be muttering, “well, we told you so, son.” Sympathy for his plight wasn’t exactly flowing in great torrents.
His lament about LIV being only about the money, after all, was as blindingly obvious as someone saying, “behold folks, the sun is setting in the west.” It all came home to roost.
To his credit, though, Chacarra has put in the hard yards to get his career back on track through the game’s traditional competitive meritocracy. LIV and let live, forgive and forget?
His dream destination was always the PGA Tour, and he is well on the way to achieving that. With the financial backside now seemingly falling out of the LIV empire, Chacarra has made the most of his second chance.
In this fickle game, he could’ve easily drifted into obscurity after LIV and been left left to mull over the what-ifs, maybes and what-might-have-beens of a career that promised much.
Fortunately for Chacarra, he is now proving his worth and showing why he was so highly-rated in his amateur days.
Chacarra’s double whammy of wins this season on the DP World Tour has him nicely tucked inside the top-10 on the Race to Dubai rankings and on course for a PGA Tour card.
He’s also got a debut in The Open to look forward to next month. It’s all the things that the LIV money couldn’t buy.
“When I was an amateur, I was one of the best in America,” he said in the aftermath of his Italian Open conquest. “I want to be one of the best players in professional golf.”
Chacarra is a hot property again. Rather like this frazzled correspondent by the pool. Oh, Señor? Give me another basting, will you?
