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Golf Monthly

Sport

Jonny Leighfield

Carlos Ortiz 'Overjoyed' To Earn Open Championship Spot After Pulling Away From LIV Rivals During International Series Macau Victory

Carlos Ortiz Patrick Reed Jason Kokrak Open Asian Tour Macau Sergio Garcia Adrian Meronk Golf Lucas Herbert

Carlos Ortiz lifts the International Series Macau trophy.

Torque GC's Carlos Ortiz said he was "overjoyed" to have earned a spot at The Open Championship later this summer thanks to his three-shot victory at the International Series Macau on Sunday.

Ortiz was level with Patrick Reed heading into the final round but closed his week out with a brilliant six-under 64 to surge past the 4Aces man and reach 22-under, consequently landing a second Asian Tour title following his International Series Oman triumph last season.

Speaking afterwards, the Mexican said: "It was a good week. I think I did a good job of putting the ball in play, that’s important on this golf course. I think I drove it really well. I took advantage of the par fives and some of the short par fours, and I think that’s important on this golf course.

“I think most of the trouble is from the tee, so once you put the driver in play, it opens up from there. So, I think I did a good job from there. I didn’t take full advantage of all those great drives, but I mean I took advantage enough. I am overjoyed to be heading to The Open.”

The elevated Asian Tour event was the latest global stop in the Open Qualifying Series, a group of tournaments which offers chances for worldwide players to tee it up in one of the four Majors, and offered up three places for Royal Portrush.

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Given it remains difficult for LIV players to access the world's biggest championships - despite recent passages opening up into the Open and US Open - there was a healthy number of pros from the 54-hole league in the field at Macau Golf and Country Club.

After 17 of the 20 who started made it through to the weekend, three LIV players locked out the podium with each collecting a guaranteed Major start in July.

Ortiz is set to play at The Open for only the second time in his career while Reed should make his 10th appearance at golf's oldest Major. Jason Kokrak was the final man to seal an Open berth and is due for a fifth attempt at winning the Claret Jug.

Speaking afterwards, a disappointed Reed said: “A little frustrating. I didn’t make many putts. Had the case of lip outs for two days. So that’s unfortunate. When you do something like that, it’s just hard to win golf tournaments.

“Put myself in position, and yeah, I hit the ball plenty well enough. 16 greens today, had a decent amount of looks, just, you know, just lipping out and burning edges.

(L-R) Patrick Reed, Carlos Ortiz and Jason Kokrak pictured with The Open flags (Image credit: Getty Images)

“So, you know, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the win. But, you know, anytime you can play bogey free on Sundays, always positive, you know, really. To go and finish solo second, get at spot in The Open, yeah, it means a lot.”

Although Reed came up short via his final round 67 (-3), the 2018 Masters champion was three strokes clear of Kokrak in third on 16-under so was never in any real danger of missing out on a superb consolation prize.

Kokrak almost had his opportunity snatched away, however, with Sergio Garcia missing a three-foot birdie putt on his final hole which would have taken the Spaniard into a share of third. Had the short putt dropped, Garcia would have been the final man in as a result of his higher world ranking.

In the end, the 2017 Masters champion finished on -15 in solo fourth. Canadian Richard T. Lee was a shot further back in fifth while Adrian Meronk ended T6th on 13-under. Lucas Herbert was T8th (-12) and Peter Uihlein finished T10th (-11).