Carlos Ortiz on US Open, Oakmont, The Open Championship & more

Carlos Ortiz joins Garrett to talk US Open, Oakmont, The Open Championship, Portrush & more

all right Garrett Johnston here with Carlos Ortiz and Carlos when I think about you know life how do you balance everything you got four little girls at home like how are you making this happen i’m trying my best uh it’s awesome i I do have good motivation but it’s also a good motivation to work hard and go home yeah what is the most rewarding part about being at home with them i think about as a girl dad like you know quality time is so important but for you like what really resonates for you for me it’s honestly paying attention to them and see how they grow it’s crazy how much they change how kids are amazing they can teach you so much to adults you know they they’re really good at being happy and then being sad in two seconds you know and and not holding to bad emotions and just enjoying them you know u obviously any kid is is fun to be around but when they’re kids is it’s awesome me taking them to school and spending time in the pool that’s that’s everything for me so um when I’m out here on the golf course that’s the motivation i know that I always have that to go to and and this actually seems quite not even important yeah well you said they’re always teaching you something like what’s a good example of that with your girls yeah what I said you know the way they go about life they they they just want to be happy and have fun you know that’s all they care about and and they find a way to do that you can take them out anywhere and they find a way to have fun and play around and and I feel like a lot of us sometimes get caught up in negative stuff when kids they’re just trying to find a way to be happy and I feel like we can learn a lot from from that well especially a short memory too you know what I mean especially out here with golf right that’s what I’m saying i I think it’s exactly what what you have to be paying attention kids can teach you so much these days well I think about as we look at your schedule now you got the open US Open Oakmont coming up i’m curious what is it about the rough when it gets that thick like what’s the right mindset going in to approach that you know what I mean to practice for it when you’re on for the practice days honestly just make sure you hit it in the fairway you know gruff is brutal and there’s not really much you can do other than taking your medicine some of these some of those times um just try to hit on the fairway um you know you know that getting into an open uh just open but um honestly I just try to focus these days where I want to be and if you’re in those positions you’ll figure it out yeah is there anything well if you know at some point you’re going to be out of position is there anything with you and your caddy on those practice days you can do around the greens to know okay from this kind of lie it’ll react like this you know are there little kind of details like that that can help yeah I mean obviously you work on that the practice days and make sure you know how the ball is reacting but some of those lights are unpredictable and you try to do your best what you always try to do is get back in position when you’re out of position so a lot of the times it’s just taking your medicine and getting back into play after after being out of position when you warm up for a major championship like the US Open um if you get a little bit of wind like what’s the right attitude to have like how do you you shape shots differently when you’re on the range or like how do you approach that honestly I I treat it as any other event i I do my best i mean we all know how to play any kind of wind any kind of rough any any kind of shot so it’s just another week you just try to actually save a little more energy than normal um I think one of the mistakes I’ve done in the past is the over practicing and now I’ve learned that it’s better to have a fresh mind and then maybe have a little bit extra practice how long when you say you know shorten your practice a little bit how long is your range warm up when you get ready out there honestly by then you don’t really have to change much you know you already have the game you have uh I try to warm up maybe work a little bit if you have anything in the swing going on but other than that is warm up and and play nine holes cheap and putt um and call it a day before maybe I will play 18 holes twice in the week now I I’ll probably focus and play nine um Tuesday nine on Wednesday and make sure I really take a good look at the golf course speaking of a good golf course Port Rush for the Open Championship a lot of excitement there what do you make of that course and and how will you kind of prepare for it on the range there like do you do you think about certain shots when you’re on the range for that or honestly um I actually went and played the open qualifier last year and um just just playing those kind of golf courses you learn a lot it’s it’s a different golf you definitely have to learn how to um hit shots a little bit different like running it into the green and and really uh knowing that maybe you’re going to play nine holes left to right nine holes right to left and that’s just how it is and you have to just find a way to to get the ball in play um I think the open especially when he plays hard condition it’s just it doesn’t really matter how it looks just make sure you get the ball in play when you’re on the range getting ready in the wind for an open do you end up abbreviating your shot a little bit you know what I mean like are there certain small tweaks you can make Carlos for your swing that help uh honestly it’s just hitting that low ball and and getting used to the turf because honestly that turf is much firmer than we’re used to here in in the US and the rest of the world uh they they get can get quite firm so you definitely have to get used to that and hitting low shots with a with a you know firm turf will you end up taking less club sometimes just keep it lower like that you know like a five instead of a seven or Yeah you do that a lot of times even here when you play into the wind um there it’s just that it’s just more noticeable because you can get really brutal conditions and there’s not really any trees or anything so you definitely want to find the ball we get the ball and find the low grass every time so you definitely I think feel feel like you end up playing a lot of knockdown shots uh but that’s just what the golf course plays you know calls for the last two things I wanted to say um the total length of time that you spend on the range warming up is it in the 30 minutes 35 minutes or or what does it look like it depends on weather conditions you know if it’s nice weather I can spend on 45 minutes an hour if it’s bad weather or it’s way too hot I probably spend 30 20 minutes and what do you want to accomplish the most is it feel certain feels you want to get to a certain spot you’re swinging mostly warming up and and make sure the ball is moving the way I want or or sometimes just finding out the way the ball is moving sometimes just the ball is flying certain way and then you get in your range session and you find that out and and you also kind of um you know calibrate your distances see how your full shots how far they’re going and then you go from there carlos also appreciate the time and good luck this week thank you appreciate it i