Eugenio Chacarra Leads His Home Spanish Open on a Fractured Toe He Broke in the Dark

The best round of the Spanish Open’s opening morning was played on a broken toe. Eugenio Chacarra, 26, from Madrid, carded two eagles in a 5-under 66 at Real Club de Campo Villa de Madrid on Thursday to lead the early starters at his home national open, Golf Channel reports, while playing with a fractured middle toe and a slight tear in a second toe that he suffered tripping over his own luggage-strewn living room in the dark last week. He finished the round unsure whether he can play the second.

How did Chacarra break his toe?

In the least athletic way available to a professional golfer. Chacarra told the DP World Tour that after flying back from France he woke in the night to get water, walked into a living room with his luggage still in the middle of it, and caught the corner of the sofa in the dark. The impact fractured the bone in his third toe and put a small tear in his second toe.

He spent the following days with his physio and doctor working out what hurt and what did not, determined to play a week he had circled all season. It is a very different kind of golf jeopardy from Jon Rahm’s courtroom exit from LIV, which is what took the headlines out of this tournament before it started, but on Thursday morning it was the story on the course.

How did he still shoot 66 with two eagles?

By separating the two things golf asks of a foot. Chacarra said the swing does not hurt, so he can still make a score, Golf Channel reports. What hurt was everything between the shots: the walk, repeated over 18 holes, with the pain across the last 12 holes severe enough that he questioned whether finishing the week is worth it.

The scoring itself was not survival golf. Two eagles in a 66 is attacking golf, and it set the clubhouse target at five under, with Angel Ayora and Daniel Hillier among the chasers at four under, The Sun reports. Hillier’s round carried its own sideshow, a hole-in-one at the 17th that won him a BMW, Golf Digest reports. Nobody ahead of Chacarra on Thursday morning was playing with a fracture.

What is at stake for Chacarra this week?

The top of his tour. Chacarra is third in the Race to Dubai standings after back-to-back wins earlier this season, and a victory in Madrid would move him to No. 1, Golf Channel reports. He is already assured of a PGA Tour card for 2027, the route Joaquin Niemann has been publicly hoping someone opens for him from the other side of golf’s divide.

The second chase is quieter: he is 55th in the world rankings, and the top 50 at year end receive Masters invitations. A home win would likely settle that too. Weighed against a fractured toe with the season’s biggest purses still being argued over in LIV’s bankruptcy, his calculation this week is simpler and harder: how much walking can the foot take before a famous week costs him the weeks after it, a trade-off any player who has studied how slope and course difficulty change scoring would recognise as the real opponent.

Will Chacarra play the second round? (Update, October 9)

He did, and the foot held up better than he feared. Update, October 9: Chacarra teed it up on Friday after Thursday’s rest-and-see plan, closed with three birdies from the 14th in a 2-under 69, and reached halfway at 7 under, tied for fourth and two shots behind Scotland’s Grant Forrest, GolfMagic reports. Golf Channel’s coverage noted the second round felt more comfortable than the first, the first piece of good news the toe has given him all week.

That changes the shape of the story without ending it. The question is no longer whether he can start a round on the fracture, it is whether 36 more holes of Madrid’s walk, at contention pace and with a Race to Dubai lead in reach, reopens the problem he managed on Thursday and Friday. The home crowd’s attention stays where Thursday put it, with Rahm absent for the birth of his fourth child: on the Madrid native with the taped toes, now chasing rather than merely surviving.

What happens next in Madrid?

The weekend. Forrest leads at 9 under with Joel Girrbach and Connor Syme one back, Chacarra two behind them, and Daniel Hillier, whose hole-in-one won him a BMW on Thursday, in the group at 6 under, GolfMagic reports. Thursday’s other Madrid talking point was the defending champion: Marco Penge topped a drive 158 yards on the seventh and opened with a 73. For Chacarra, Saturday is the test Friday was supposed to be: a third straight day of walking on a fractured toe, this time with a home title genuinely in range. Saturday’s third round reshaped the top of the leaderboard again, as former delivery driver Joe Dean lost a three-shot lead in two holes, then holed a 31-footer on the last to share the lead with Grant Forrest at 13 under, leaving Chacarra tied for eighth at 8 under heading into Sunday.

Did Chacarra’s Sunday charge win the Spanish Open? (Update, October 11)

It came within one shot, on a fractured toe. Chacarra played Sunday’s front nine in 31 with an eagle at the seventh, then birdied the last to post 13 under, but Grant Forrest birdied the 18th behind him to win at 14 under, as Forrest’s final-hole birdie settled the Spanish Open and Dean’s Sunday faded. For the Madrid native, second place at his home open, four days after questioning whether walking 18 holes was worth it, closes the week the first round promised.