Carlos Ortiz Wins Houston Open

The Houston Open was in its first year at Memorial Park provided a memorable week for Carlos Ortiz en route to capturing his first PGA TOUR win.

Ortiz, who played his college golf at North Texas, topped Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama by two shots.

“I played great and it was challenging at the end,” Ortiz said. “I saw there’s a couple people playing really good, too, so I knew I couldn’t just like lay it up to the greens and then expect to win so I had to finish strong. I hit an amazing shot on 16 and obviously finishing with this birdie helped, too. I’m really happy and pleased the way I played.”

The Houston Open was the first domestic PGA Tour event that allowed spectators during the COVID-19 pandemic, selling 2,000 tickets daily and the fans had plenty to cheer about with the strong field battling it out in the week leading up to the Masters.

Former No. 1 player in the world Brooks Koepka fired back-to-back 65s on the weekend to finish in a tie for fifth.

“It was nice, build some confidence I guess going into Augusta scoring well,” Koepka said. “This golf course, if you’re going to drive the ball in the fairway, you’re going to have a lot of scoring opportunities.”

Past Masters champions Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Charl Schwartzel and Sergio Garcia were among those who missed the cut.