Carlos Ortiz, 29, brilliantly captured a maiden Tour title and a start in next April’s Masters in becoming only the third Mexican-born to win on the PGA Tour with victory at the Houston Open.
Ortiz birdied the last in a five-under par 65 and win by two shots at 13-under to deny World No. 1 and Masters hot-favourite Dustin Johnson (65) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyma (63) who shared second at 11-under on the Memorial Park course.
“It feels awesome to win my first PGA Tour title and it’s been a while since I won (Three wins in 2014 on the Web.Com Tour), so it feels good,” said the now Texas-based Ortiz.
Needed par. Drained the birdie. 😤@CarlosOrtizGolf left no doubt to seal his first TOUR title. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/fMXzy3Ey5g
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 8, 2020
“I am just so happy winning here in Houston as Texas is now where I live and there was a bunch of local people here cheering for me along with many Latinos, Mexicans and also plenty of Texans cheering for me so it’s been awesome.”
Sharing fifth place was four-time major winner Brooks Koepka was headed to the Masters after a pair of 65s over the weekend for an eight-under total.
“I feel good going to Augusta as the whole goal here in Houston was to find some confidence, so I played well,” he said.
“I haven’t scored all year and I thought my scoring has been off, so I have finally put some low scores together and I’m ready for next week.”
