LIV Golf star earns Olympic spot alongside Jon Rahm despite Saudi league's ranking woes
LIV Golf star David Puig has booked his place at this summer's Olympic Games, after the 22-year-old battled his way to make the 36-hole cut at this week's U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.
Puig entered the event knowing he needed to play his way into the weekend to represent his native Spain on the Olympic stage in August, and did exactly that following the opening two rounds in North Carolina. In doing so he joined fellow Spaniard - and LIV member - Jon Rahm in the vacant Spanish spot.
Puig's qualification into the Paris Olympics later this year is all the more commendable, having spent the whole of his professional playing career with the LIV setup - who are yet to acquire Official World Golf Ranking accreditation.
The 60-man field at the Olympics is made up of the top-two ranked players from each nation on the OWGR list. Puig has managed to play his way to Paris by balancing his LIV playing requirements alongside a number of ventures out onto the Asian Tour.
This decision has come with success too, with the youngster winning twice in the past year in Singapore and Malaysia. He also earned himself a spot at this week's U.S. Open, after Puig prevailed in 36-hole qualifying earlier this month. This thus gave him the chance to bank his Olympic spot, but it was not exactly simple for the Fireballs star.
Things got off to a tricky start for Puig on Thursday, after he carded a six-over-par 76 in round one in testing conditions. He made up for this 24 hours later though, as the Spaniard shot an impressive two-under 68 around the North Carolina track to ensure he made the cut by a single shot.
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David Puig is in action at the U.S. Open
Making the cut of course ensured he would bank some world ranking points come Monday morning, which will see him overtake fellow Spaniard Jorge Campillo - who plays the majority of his golf on the DP World Tour - in the Olympic rankings to join Rahm in France in August.
Just last week, the 22-year-old discussed the prospects of banking his Olympic spot after securing his best-ever finish on the LIV circuit with a tied-third at LIV Houston. He said: "There's two Spaniards that are trying to catch me because everything is pretty tight
"Obviously I wish them luck, but yeah, I think the deadline is right after the U.S. Open, so I have a little chance there in case they get past me this week in Sweden [on the DP World Tour] where they're playing. Yeah, it would be great to play alongside Jon at the Olympics. It would be a dream come true for sure."