Ricky Castillo won the 2026 Puerto Rico Open for his first PGA Tour title, defeating Chandler Blanchet by one stroke.
Castillo started the final round with a one-stroke lead, going after his first career win. He opened with a 3-under-33 on the front nine. However, Blades Brown was rising up on the leaderboard toward him thanks to a 4-under-32 on the opening nine.
Brown took a one-stroke lead, looking to become the youngest PGA Tour player to win in 95 years, but his triple bogey on the 13th knocked him too far down the leaderboard. He had to settle for a third-place finish.
Meanwhile, Castillo made back-to-back birdies on the 13th and 14th holes to take the lead with four holes to play. His final round of 5-under-67 was good enough to secure his victory by one stroke.
With this win, Castillo earned 300 FedexCup points, his PGA Tour card through 2028 and a spot in the 2026 PGA Championship. He is the second first-time winner on the PGA Tour this season and the twelfth player to earn his first career win at the Puerto Rico Open.
Castillo was 11 FedExCup points away from being able to play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and had originally said he wouldn’t play in the Puerto Rico Open either. “It’s really cool to put into words to be able to win my first event,” he commented after the round. “I felt like I wanted to be in Bay Hill and I decided to just come out here and play this and ended up winning, so it all works out in the end. Yeah, surreal week.”
Next on the PGA Tour schedule is The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, where Rory McIlroy will look to defend his title against a field that includes Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim and Tommy Fleetwood.
