Out of the penultimate pairing, World No. 78 Carlos Ortiz fast-finished a 5-under-par 36-30=66 in R4 of the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba to post 19-under 265, up two places to solo 2nd, four shy of champion Viktor Hovland (67).
The Guadalajara native began solo 4th, five back of leader and defender Hovland, and had fallen off the map with an even-par first half (1 birdie, 1 bogey). He stormed back to life with five birdies coming in, highlighted by four straight at 12-15, and then banged in an improbable par-saver from distance at the last to secure the runner-up finish alone. The North Texas alum records his fourth top 10s in eight visits, three straight, ending each of those with 66’s, and second runner-up. Overall, it’s his fourth top-3 finish in 145 events, first since his maiden (and lone) TOUR title 27 starts ago at the Houston Open, which is this coming week’s event. For the festivities, the 30-year-old carded laps of 67-65-67-66, totaled 25 birdies against four bogeys and a double, and ranked 2nd in putts per GIR (1.478). See link below to post-round comments, which interestingly, don’t include any mention of the sore shoulder that he had been nursing.