LIV Golf’s Carlos Ortiz lambasts “unfair” Olympic qualification scenario

Carlos Ortiz will represent Team Mexico in the men's golf event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The men's golf individual stroke play competition is set to take center stage from Thursday, August 1, and all golfers competing in the event are geared up and motivated to win a medal for their country.

Mexican golfer Ortiz is one of the seven LIV Golf players who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, the 33-year-old golfer is unhappy with the qualification scenario, deeming it unfair:

"It's just the situation in golf right now, it's unfair. Especially Olympic Games, you want to have the best golfers right here, but politics somehow manage things still. I still feel there's golfers that should be here and couldn't be here because of what has happened, you know," Ortiz said.

Ortiz believes the Olympic games should be "neutral" when it comes to qualification and shouldn't rely on the OWGR.

"I think the Olympic Games definitely should be neutral. They should have not turned away ranking players accordingly, especially now that the World Ranking points don't really work anymore," concluded the Mexican LIV Golfer.

Carlos Ortiz teeing off at the LIV Golf League Nashville | Getty

There are 60 golfers in the field, with only seven players from LIV Golf. The main reason for such low representation from the Saudi-backed tour is the OWGR points. LIV Golf players do not receive OWGR points, affecting their rankings immensely.

Meanwhile, the Australian golfer Cameron Smith said he desperately wanted to represent his country but fell short of the qualification marks set by Jason Day and Min Woo Lee. The 2024 US Open Champion Bryson DeChambeau has also shared his disappointment and frustration at not being able to represent the four-man Team USA.

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A look at Carlos Ortiz's performance in 2024

Carlos Ortiz has had a decent season on the LIV Golf circuit. He registered his first win this season at the LIV Golf Houston event in June. The Mexican golfer is ranked 12th in the individual standings, while Chilean Joaquin Neimann leads the standings going into the final two events.

Ortiz joined LIV Golf in its debut season in 2022. He represented Fireball GC in 2023 and moved to Torque GC in 2024. Torque GC is ranked 4th in the team standings and will have a chance of winning the team championship if they can register a victory in the final two events.

Before that, Ortiz will focus on registering a strong finish this week as he seeks the gold medal for his country. Ortiz will represent Mexico along with fellow LIV golfer Abraham Ancer.

The Mexican duo competed in the previous 2021 Tokyo Olympics but weren't in contention to win a medal at the end of the event, Ortiz finishing in a tie for 42nd and Ancer finishing in a tie for 14th place, respectively.