SUGAR GROVE, ILLINOIS | David Puig isn’t saying how much the contract he signed with LIV Golf is worth, or how long it is. One can be sure, however, that Puig can afford to spring nightly for the pizza with the mushrooms and black olives he prefers for his roommates, former Arizona State teammates Ryggs Johnston, Preston Summerhays and Josele Ballester.
Wait a minute. Roommates?
Of all the LIV signings, from Phil Mickelson’s reported $200 million deal to Cameron Smith’s $100 million-plus haul, Puig’s is the outlier. That’s not because it’s probably for no more than a couple of million, loose change to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the bankroller for the upstart organization.
Rather, it’s because Puig (pronounced Poog), the world’s ninth-ranked amateur when turning professional a week ago, remains an Arizona State student, taking classes online for his communications major, paying his tuition, with two years of such toil remaining. There’s no fancy car or condo for the 21-year-old Spaniard. At least, not yet. He just wanted to take his golf to a higher level while still hitting the books and hanging with his pals.
But why now?
“It’s always hard to choose one side,” Puig said before the first round of the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago. “You’d rather choose a side that helps every player, but in my position, the PGA Tour didn’t give me a chance to play anywhere, and LIV did. So, it was a pretty easy decision. It’s a way to learn for me.
“I basically got just one opportunity to play with pros (finishing T34 in the 2021 Spanish Open on the European Tour) before LIV started. LIV was very supportive; they gave me two exemptions as an amateur, which I’m really appreciative of.”
Few in the gallery at Rich Harvest Farms knew of his backstory, but Puig had a cheering section 62 miles away. In a scheduling quirk, his Sun Devils pals were playing Olympia Fields Country Club’s stout North Course in the Fighting Illini Invitational, albeit bereft of opening ceremonies with former paratroopers dropping from the sky, or DJs – either of the disk jockey or Dustin Johnson variety – on the course.
“I was kind of surprised, didn’t understand it at first,” Ballester, a fellow Spaniard, said at Olympia Fields. “He explained it and it makes lots of sense. The exemptions are the main reason. And it was going to be tough to make it into (PGA Tour University) rankings.”
“It is a big move,” Summerhays said. “He has to do what’s best for him, and I support him. It makes sense for him to play against the elite level. And they turn pro a bit earlier in Europe.”
Ballester said he’d sign as well if a similar deal were offered.
Puig kept Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond clued in from the start, and received sage advice in return.
“It’s an amazing story,” Thurmond said. “We’ve been talking about this for months, he and I, and we’re on the same page. It’s an opportunity he had to take. This whole process he’s going through, such a coming-of-age process, and frankly, having to deal with thousands of opinions, both nice things and rude things people say, helps you understand what’s going on in the world. It’s too bad hate and politics have been introduced into the game. Shame on everybody who’s done that. It doesn’t need to be that way.
“I love he’s still going to be around, even if we’re not taking his scores.”
“He knew it was a pretty big step for me,” Puig said of Thurmond. “I’m glad that I have his backing any time I need it.”
“I have expectations. But I’m not nervous. It’s just what I do every day.”
David Puig
When LIV came calling, trying for Korn Ferry Tour membership through the PGA Tour University ranking during the 2023-24 college season became far less attractive to Puig. As for an exemption into the WM Phoenix Open, played at TPC Scottsdale a few miles from the Arizona State campus in Tempe, one went to the highly-accomplished Summerhays this year.
“Getting into the Phoenix Open is pretty tough, especially when a guy’s from Spain,” Puig said. “Preston had a chance to play, and he deserved it. He’s an awesome guy and player, but I think when he was 10 years old, he helped with the tournament or something. So, it’s tough. I think the last amateur (before Summerhays) who competed there was Jon Rahm (in 2015).
“And for other tournaments, being from Spain, it’s pretty tough. They would rather give exemptions to people who are local.”
In other words, why not now, and why not LIV? Puig’s signing is not so much about the money but the opportunity, and displays a second level to LIV’s player strategy beyond grabbing the big names of today. They want the stars of tomorrow – who come at a lower price – as well.
In the equivalent of the American Football League signing players under the goalposts at the Senior Bowl in the early 1960s, LIV signed Puig just before the NCAA’s fall season commenced, after he had played in the first and third LIV weekends as an amateur.
Earlier in the year, James Piot, winner of last year’s U.S. Amateur, signed with LIV, and Oklahoma State’s Eugenio López-Chacarra followed in late June. Thus, Puig’s is the third deal taking a potential name player off the PGA Tour ladder and plunking him into a pond with barracudas – and helmed by a Shark.
“I have expectations,” said Puig, who finished T37 at Rich Harvest Farms. “But I’m not nervous. It’s just what I do every day.”
Before top-level golf was knocked on its ear, Puig would have been at Olympia Fields as well, a place where Jack Nicklaus won and Bobby Jones lost, soaking up a bit of a century-plus of history. Now, starting on a software tycoon’s backyard course in a parallel golf universe – one considered caked in blood money by some and as a breath of fresh air by others – he has begun to try to make some history himself, with his roomies rooting him on. Pass the pizza.
Top: David Puig speaks to the media at Rich Harvest Farms.
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