Golf
LIV Golf winner fuming he’s not in US Open: “I’m one of the best in the world”
LIV Golf’s latest winner Carlos Ortiz believes he is ‘one of the best players in the world and deserves to be in the US Open’ at Pinehurst No.2 this week.
Ortiz, 33, closed with a 67 on Sunday to see out a narrow one-shot victory over Poland’s Adrian Meronk at LIV Golf Houston.
Houston is seemingly not a problem for Ortiz as he also won his sole PGA Tour title there in 2020.
LIV Golf Houston marked the Mexican’s first career win on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League, and his second of the season to go alongside his commanding International Series Oman victory on the Asian Tour in February.
Outside of those two wins this season, Ortiz has two more top-10 finishes with a T10 on the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau and a T4 at LIV Golf Hong Kong.
Ortiz has finished outside of the top 20 in three 48-man LIV Golf League events this season with a T43 at Mayakoba, T40 at Las Vegas and T22 at LIV Golf Adelaide.
After chalking up his first win on the LIV Golf League, Ortiz signalled major disappointment at not being able to take his form into this week’s US Open.
Ortiz competed in US Open qualifying in Dallas last month but was left to rue a costly double bogey on the final hole to fall out of joining 13 LIV Golf players that will play in the 2024 US Open.
He is now hoping to qualify for The British Open The Open next month.
Scroll below to hear what Ortiz had to say about missing out on the US Open…
Ortiz said:
“I’ve been playing great. It was a shame I doubled the last hole to miss the qualifier. It hurt a lot. I think with time, we will get back into the majors because I know that I am one of the best players in the world right now, I deserve to be there, but with things that are happening right now, it’s kind of hard. I’ll do my best to get into the British Open, and then I also have the summer Olympics too, other than the LIV tournaments I have coming up. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
It would appear Ortiz’s comments have divided opinion on social media.
Some consider he is right to be annoyed, while others considers he had his chance to qualify and blew it.
Having tumbled down the Official World Golf Rankings to a current 237th, Ortiz has not featured in any of the majors in 2024.
His last major appearance came with a missed cut at the 2023 US Open.
Ortiz has played in nine majors and incredibly missed the cut in seven of them.
His best result at a major is a T52 at the 2019 US Open.
Ortiz was once ranked as a high as 44th in the world.
He diverted to LIV Golf in the season’s inaugural season in 2022.
Ortiz finished in the top five twice in 2022, and he had four top-10 finishes in 2023.