Chacarra Goes Back-to-Back — and Lands an Open Debut

Two DP World Tour titles in two weeks, and a PGA Tour card now firmly in his sights

Eugenio Chacarra closed out the Italian Open on Sunday with a bogey-free 64, winning by five shots at Circolo Golf Torino. It was the 26-year-old Spaniard’s second DP World Tour title in as many weeks, following his win at the KLM Open earlier in June. Both the manner and the timing matter.

A flawless Sunday in Turin

A victorious Eugenio Chacarra waves to the crowd

Chacarra reached 24-under for the week, five clear of England’s Matt Wallace, with Chile’s Joaquín Niemann a further shot back in third. The closing round was the work of a player in full control — five birdies in his first ten holes, then an eagle at the par-five 15th to settle the matter. He never looked troubled. (ESPN)

A ticket to Royal Birkdale

The victory carried a significant reward beyond the trophy. Chacarra secured the final Open Championship place available to unexempt players through the Open Qualifying Series, booking his debut at Royal Birkdale next month. For a player who has watched the game’s oldest major on television since boyhood, it is a milestone moment.

The bigger prize in sight

The win lifted Chacarra to third in the Race to Dubai, behind only Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy, and put him top of the standings for the ten PGA Tour cards awarded to leading non-exempt players at season’s end. It marks a notable turnaround. A former LIV Golf player whose contract with Sergio García’s Fireballs was not renewed after 2024, Chacarra returned to the DP World Tour and won the Hero Indian Open in March 2025. Three titles in fifteen months later, the PGA Tour card he has chased since childhood is within reach.

Eugenio Chacarra with the Italian Open Trophy

A summer for Spanish golf

Chacarra’s form is part of a strong season for Spanish golf, and a reminder of the depth the country continues to produce. For anyone inspired to play where the Spanish game is at its finest, the courses of the Costa del Sol — championship layouts, reliable sunshine, and the kind of post-round dining that makes an evening — are hard to beat.

Browse our Costa del Sol golf holidays and see what the fuss is about.


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Portugal Invitational 2026: Make a Week of It in the Algarve

The tournament is five weeks away. The field is confirmed. The Algarve is warm. Here is why all three of these things should matter to you.

2026 Portugal Invitational - Algarve, Porugal
Pádraig Harrington won the Portugal Masters at The Els Club Vilamoura in 2016. On 31 July, he returns to that same course for the inaugural Portugal Invitational — the first PGA TOUR Champions event ever staged in Europe — alongside Bernhard Langer, José María Olazábal, Ernie Els, and a 78-player field with more major titles between them than most tours produce in a decade. Five weeks away. Accommodation in the Vilamoura golf holiday packages in late July does not linger. This is the moment to make a decision.

These Are Not Exhibition Golfers

It would be easy to mistake a senior circuit event for a celebration of the past rather than a contest in the present. Dismiss that thought. Bernhard Langer — approaching his 69th birthday — holds 47 PGA TOUR Champions wins and six Charles Schwab Cups. Harrington has claimed two U.S. Senior Open titles since turning 50 and remains a genuine contender at every major on the calendar. Olazábal, a two-time Masters champion, is competing on his home continent for the first time at this level. Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, and David Duval are all here to win. The $3 million prize purse — one of the largest on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule — has a way of concentrating minds. Harrington will know every slope of The Els Club Vilamoura. That is not a small advantage.

Aerial view of The Els Club Vilamoura, host venue for the inaugural 2026 Portugal Invitational

What Tournament Week Actually Looks Like

The competition runs from 31 July to 2 August, with the Pro-Am taking place in the days beforehand. Pro-Am packages are available for those who would rather play alongside a PGA TOUR Champions legend than simply watch one — a round at The Els Club Vilamoura in that company is a golf story worth telling. All three rounds are broadcast live on Golf Channel, across 170 countries, but if you are standing on the course rather than watching from a sofa, you will see Harrington walk fairways he already knows, and Langer add another chapter to a career that declines to reach a final paragraph. The Els Club has the 261 Tap Room on site. The marina restaurants are a short drive. The dourada was in the Atlantic that morning.

Vilamoura marina on a summer evening, Algarve, with waterfront restaurants and moored yachts

The Algarve Does Not Begin and End in Vilamoura

Tournament week is the anchor. The Algarve is the destination. Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo are within easy reach — which have been benchmarks for European resort golf for thirty years. Further west, Palmares plays along the cliffs above Meia Praia beach, with the Atlantic visible on almost every hole. The coastline between Vilamoura and Lagos contains some of the finest golf in Portugal. Build the trip around the tournament and there is no shortage of material to fill the days either side.

clifftop fairways of Palmares Golf Course above Meia Praia beach, Algarve

The Portugal Invitational is a five-year commitment — it will return in 2027. But the inaugural edition only happens once. There will be a first winner, a first-round leader, a first eagle at The Els Club Vilamoura under tournament conditions. With Harrington and Langer in the field, a Sunday finish to remember is well within the range of probabilities.

The Algarve has been ready for this for some time. So, with any luck, are you.

Browse our Algarve golf holidays and start building the trip around the Portugal Invitational.


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The PGA Tour’s 2028 Overhaul: Two Tiers, Match Play and Pine Valley

Promotion, relegation, no sponsor exemptions — and a Tour Championship that might finally be worth the name

The dust had barely settled on Wyndham Clark’s second U.S. Open title at Shinnecock Hills when the PGA Tour landed another story. On Tuesday at TPC River Highlands, CEO Brian Rolapp stepped to a podium and delivered the most significant structural overhaul in the Tour’s history. Starting in 2028, the Tour’s new model will include two separate series of tournaments running concurrently — the PGA Tour Championship Series and the PGA Tour Challenger Series. Golf, in other words, has finally borrowed football’s best idea.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp addresses media at TPC River Highlands during the 2026 Travelers Championship

Two Tracks, Running at Once

The Championship Series is the premium tier. It will feature up to 24 events, including 16 signature events, The Players Championship, four major championships, and season-ending events. Each signature event will be a 72-hole stroke-play tournament with average field sizes of 120 golfers and 36-hole cuts to the top 65 and ties, with a purse of at least $20 million. There will be no sponsor exemptions.(ESPN)

The Challenger Series sits beneath it as a genuine proving ground. It will consist of a minimum of 20 tournaments with purses of at least $4 million and 144-man fields, with around seven elevated events played during Championship Series off-weeks. Win twice on the Challenger track, and a player earns immediate promotion to the top flight.

PGA Tour graphic for the Championship Series and Challenger Series structure launching in 2028

Promotion, Relegation — and a Last Chance

At least the top 90 players in the Championship Series points list will retain their membership the following season, with another 20 promoted from the Challenger Series each year. Those who fall outside the top 90 are not cut loose immediately. Golfers facing potential relegation will be able to compete in a “last chance” series of four to six events in the autumn. Any golfer who fails to regain Championship Series status and doesn’t advance through those events will be eligible to compete in the Challenger Series the next season. It is promotion and relegation, applied to golf. The Premier League figured this out sixty years ago.

Tiger Woods chaired the Future Competition Committee that produced the recommendations, alongside Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas, among others. Rolapp described the outcome as a model grounded in meritocracy, with clearer pathways, higher stakes and more consistency when the best players compete together.(ESPN)

The Playoffs Finally Get Interesting

The Tour Championship — long the least compelling event in its own playoff — is overdue a reinvention. From 2028, it will leave East Lake and rotate to prestigious courses that the Tour has rarely or never played, including Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, Cypress Point Club in California, and Seminole Golf Club in Florida. The postseason will also incorporate match play: a World Cup-style pool format with 32 players in groups of four vying for 16 final spots, then a small-field match play final at one of the world’s great courses — no ropes, no corporate buildout. Just golf at the places it was meant to be played. (The Fried Egg)

Tommy Fleetwood mid-swing

Where European Golf Fits In

The announcement carries real consequence on this side of the Atlantic. The future autumn schedule will feature a limited series of elevated international events with top players from the Championship Series, co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour. How many DP World Tour finishers earn direct Championship Series status is still being finalised — but the pathway matters, and the conversations are very much live.

Rory McIlroy, who had described the Challenger Series concept as a glorified version of the Korn Ferry Tour during his U.S. Open press conference, tempered his position once the full details landed, calling it a positive step for professional golf. High praise, by Rory’s standards.

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The courses that make European golf worth playing are not waiting for the PGA Tour to reorganise itself. They are available now — and in considerably better weather. Browse our Algarve golf courses →


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