MEN'S OLYMPIC GOLF COMPETITION

July 30, 2024

Abraham Ancer

Carlos Ortiz

Le Golf National

Mexico

Quick Quotes

STUART MOFFATT: Welcome to this afternoon's press conference with Team México, Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortíz.

First of all, gentlemen, you've been out at Le Golf National. How is the course playing and how much are you looking forward to the challenge ahead?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Well for me it's the first time that I've played the golf course, and I think it's an absolute beast of a golf course. I think it's a great setup. It's in perfect condition. It's a beautiful track and it's definitely going to identify who is playing the best golf this week. So I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

CARLOS ORTÍZ: Yeah, great golf course. Definitely it's important to hit the fairways, just like Abraham said. You have to do that for four days, play proper golf, and I think it will reward best player.

STUART MOFFATT: How much pride do you have representing your country in the Olympic Games?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I don't think we get to do it very often. So any time that we have the opportunity to represent our country, it feels amazing. I think it's definitely an honour and we don't get to do this very often. Myself and Carlos, we played in the Pan American Games, and also Tokyo, and we feel we really enjoy when we get to do this and feeling the support of the whole country it's a really cool feeling.

CARLOS ORTÍZ: Like he said, it's hard to put into words playing in the Olympic Games. It's an honour to putt the flag on the Mexican shirts and walk around for four days around here. Weaver going to do our best to bring a medal back home.

Q. Whose idea was that wear the black shirts? Was that Abe's?

CARLOS ORTÍZ: That was Abraham's ideas.

ABRAHAM ANCER: We had to use it one of the days, I don't I don't know what to do. I thought the outfit was great. I don't know what you're telling me about -- it looks hot.

Q. It locks good. Curious for both of you, what kind of pressure or intensity you felt in Tokyo. I'm trying to remember, Carlos, you were in decent shape going into Sunday, not a great Sunday, and then Abe made a pretty nice run on Sunday. How would you compare it with other majors or big events you've been in?

CARLOS ORTÍZ: I would definitely say it's way up there. It's a different feeling. I have never really been in an Olympic Games before, and I thought it was going to be like a World Cup or something. But it's just completely different. It's because you know World Cup, golfers watch but in the Olympic Games, the whole country watches.

In México, there's not that many golfers, so not that many people watch golf. In the Olympic Games, everybody watches so you feel that support. It's a completely different feeling. I can tell you something that I did not expect to feel that -- I wouldn't say pressure, but it's just kind of responsibility, you know, because the whole country is somehow cheering for you. That's never happened in our country when playing golf.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I agree with Charlie there. I think it's a different feeling. I think it's a great feeling. I think it's an honour to feel that and to have the chance to bring a medal to your country, which is -- I think is really neat. Yes, we come from a country that golf is not huge but it's getting there. It's growing you and feel the support from a lot of people who get messages from people who don't even play golf, which I think is really cool and opens our eyes to this sport. So it definitely ranks up there with the majors pressure-wise in my opinion for sure.

Q. Second from me. Just the difficulty in getting here, and what you had to do given the ranking situation with LIV. We spoke in Vegas about what kind of a priority this was for you. How do you feel about getting here and how hard was it?

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I think very lucky. I was definitely sweating it in the last two months because there was really not much that I could play that fit the schedule to get in the World Ranking points.

So I just had to wait and see if my World Ranking -- because it was starting to plummet fast every week. We were just starting to make calculations and see if it was going to hold on or not. I mean, thankfully, it did. There was a couple of weeks that I could have played a couple of events on the Asian Tour but the field wasn't that strong; that if I didn't happen to finish in the top two or three that week, it might actually hurt my World Ranking more than if I didn't play.

Yeah, it was definitely a strange feeling but not complaining now. I'm happy that I'm here and yeah, it was just a different situation.

CARLOS ORTÍZ: 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. I think the Olympic Games definitely should be neutral, you know. They should have not turned away ranking players accordingly, especially now that the World Ranking points don't really work anymore.

Q. What do you think a solution would be? I've been asking various guys that. Because golf is kind of different from other sports in terms of qualifying. What would be a good solution?

CARLOS ORTÍZ: The solution would be people up there to leave their egos on the side and find a common ground. I think there is definitely common ground, and I think both ways, they have to find -- give -- you cannot take everything. As I'm saying, both sides have to give something up to find common ground. I think it's a matter of time now but they are still taking time.

I believe both of us should be playing majors. I think we played great golf this year, and it's hard to get in them. I tried to qualify for the British Open. I just barely missed. But you know, there should be a way for us to get in there, a simpler way.

I understand the decision everything and, but right now, I think it's proven that the golf is there, and there should be open panel ways for us to qualify, if that's still going to be the qualifying system, or let us somehow get into those tournaments in different ways.

Q. I'd follow up on that by asking about Bryson not being here, sort of along the same lines. Wonder if that came up with you guys at all last week, any disappointment from him? Obviously he just won the U.S. Open and he's had a great year in the majors and might have obviously been here had the -- had he be earning points with LIV.

ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I personally don't get too involved in politics to be honest or technicalities.

But yeah, I think it would be great if the countries can get to pick who they bring and just be like, hey, these are the guys that we believe have a chance to win a medal, or this is the guys that I want to bring. Maybe that would be a way to fix it. It's not going to be easy. Not everybody is going to be happy.

It's definitely tough. But yeah, for example, there's other sports that I that if you're in the Pan American Games, you win a medal. It sort of like qualification to go to the Olympic Games. For example, I won the Gold Medal in Pan American Games but that didn't do absolutely anything. Nothing.

Yeah, it's a little bit weird.

I also think -- this is not even the question but I feel like there's a lot of missed opportunities, also, in the format. I think it could be so much cooler having more options for medals team-wise. You can do so many things that it would bring so much excitement. You can do match play. You can do so many things that it will just elevate, I think, the format we only get to do this four times a year, every four years if we're lucky.

Q. You said you feel a responsibility because México is watching more so than they are watching other times of the year. Has there been a moment in your life or an accomplishment in your life where you really felt that the country was watching and maybe they felt something from your accomplishments?

CARLOS ORTÍZ: I think the only time the Olympic Games -- I will tell you honestly, if I win, when I won on the PGA TOUR, LIV, 99 percent of the country doesn't even know. Golf is not a popular sport in Mexico but the Olympic Games, they are the Olympic Games and so they definitely were watching. That's what I'm saying, it's a completely different feeling. You don't realize how big it is until you are part of one of them, and you feel the support in many different ways.

These things are special, and I think they should be special and I think that's what Abe was saying. I think there's different many ways that we can make these Games special, starting with bringing the right players. I'm not saying only because of the World Ranking but you know, like the U.S. only have the top four, whatever.

But if you want to have the Olympic Games to be the best Games or importance than a major, you'd better make sure the best players are playing in this event. You have some of the best players but you don't have all the best players, you know and I also feel that we play every week individually. So why not make it so we are playing for our country, make it a team or make it mixed.

I think they definitely can sit down and try to think how to make it better, you know, I just -- personally.

Q. The final round in Tokyo, you were down and Carlos was up. Did you find yourself trying to beat Carlos or rooting for him?

ABRAHAM ANCER: I was just trying to finish in the top three. That's the only thing you want to do this week, really.

To be honest, I didn't know at the moment like where exactly we were. Carlos, I know you were up there, I feel like starting the last round and I was just trying to just shoot the lowest possible because if I finish fourth or 60th, it doesn't matter.

So I never wanted to finish third so bad in my life. So I was just trying to play my best. That was just my only goal that week.