Get there and win. Catalan David Puig, 23 years old, achieved victory today, Sunday in Brisbane, in the BMW Australian PGA Championship, the first tournament on the European circuit that he has played in his career as a full member and the first date of the new year on the so-called DP World Tour. Puig won by 18 strokes under par, two strokes ahead of Chinese Winnie Ding, achieving his third professional victory after two victories on the Asian circuit, in 2023 in Singapore and in 2024 in Malaysia. He became the second Spaniard to win this title after Seve Ballesteros in 1981.
Puig is a LIV player, the Saudi league that doesn’t usually produce this profile of a golfer, a young man who progresses and improves every season. The Catalan has gritted his teeth over the past few years to look outside the Saudi competition for the Saudi classification points that LIV is not currently handing out and which he needed to look forward to bigger events. That’s how he qualified, for example, for the last Olympics in Paris alongside Jon Rahm (whom he trains with in Arizona) and that’s how he now competes to earn a name on the European circuit and open the door to the greats repeatedly (he’s competed in five). In the Saudi League, he finished this season in tenth place in the individual rankings, which is his best result after continuous progress: 64th place in 2022, 31st place in 2023, and 26th place in 2024.
Puig commented: “This means everything to me. Winning here and having my name next to Seve’s is a dream. With this win, certain doors open for me that I may not have fully expected. I still don’t quite know what tournaments I will add to my calendar, but I know now that I can be the best.”
BMW Australian PGA Championship final standings.