Defending Champion Carlos Ortiz Explains Why He Withdrew From the 2021 Houston Open

Carlos Ortiz will not be defending his title at the upcoming Houston Open due to a persisting injury. In the 2020 edition known as the Vivint Houston Open, Ortiz carded a superb performance of 13-under par. In the playoff, he beat Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama to bag his first title on the PGA Tour.

Meanwhile, the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba recently wound up in Mexico and Ortiz put up his best-ever performance since his win. Playing in front of his home-crowd, he finished 19-under to come up second behind defending champion Viktor Hovland.

The injury began a couple of weeks ago at the Zozo Championship and Ortiz withdrew midway through it. And now again, the severity of it has forced him to pull out of the next stop of the PGA Tour at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. John Huh will be his replacement at the event which is set to begin tomorrow at the Memorial Park Golf Course.

Carlos Ortiz to go on a 4-week break

In a recent appearance at SiriusXM radio, Ortiz revealed everything to Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. Talking about playing next week, he said, “Honestly, I haven’t even been to the golf course yet. I actually don’t think I’m gonna be able to play. I’ve been battling a left shoulder injury since Japan, and I went to the doctors this morning and he recommended that I should not play. I should take time off to recover.”

He said that he is going to take the advice and use the time to find out what is bothering him in order to recover quickly. Indulging in details about his injured left shoulder, he revealed that it’s ‘nothing too serious’. He added that the muscles are a just little inflamed and the surrounding nerves are trapped.

Moreover, he commented on when he will be back. He said, “I wanna take myself a good 4 weeks without touching a club. It’s just been a long year… I’m ready to spend time with my family.” The 30-year-old plans to return to the tour in January.

Expressing his dismay on withdrawing from the 2021 Houston Open, he said, “This is incredibly disappointing to me as I was looking forward to defending my first PGA Tour title in Texas, my second home. I’m honored to be a champion of this event, and I look forward to returning next year.”

Read More- Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley Part of Commentary Team for Brooks Koepka vs Bryson DeChambeau