English Hopes to Jump-Start Season in Cancun


Last November, Harris English capped a fine 2013 calendar year with a victory in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. Though they came in separate seasons in the PGA Tour's new wraparound format, earlier in June English secured his first victory in the FedEx St. Jude Classic.

The new 2014-15 season is still relatively young, and the 25-year-old Georgian has got off to a spotty start. In three events, he's missed two cuts and earned just over $100,000.

But English, who finished 32nd in the FedEx Cup standings in the just-concluded 2013-14 season after earnings of $2,947,322, hopes to kick-start his fortunes in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. The $6.1 million event gets underway Thursday at the El Cameleon course at Playa del Carmen, located just south of Cancun.

"This tournament has done so much for me," said English, who'll be paired in the first two rounds with two recent first-time winners, Canada's Nick Taylor, who won the Sanderson Farms Championship Sunday, and Robert Streb (McGladrey Classic two weeks ago).

As the reigning Mayakoba champion English has been treated like a king. "Everybody's been so nice to me and really reached out to me as one of their own," added the Georgia Bulldog. "It's felt so good being a champion and to see all the billboards out there and to see how much they're trying to get this tournament to be one of the best on the PGA Tour, which, it's very, very close."

Despite firing a 62 in the second round a year ago, English entered Sunday one shot out of the lead. But he fired a final-round 6-under 65 on the par-71 layout to win by four.

He's hoping for more such mojo as he goes for two titles in a row. "I remember all the good golf shots I hit down the stretch (a year ago), all the good putts I made in the final round," he said. "You can feed off of that, because golf is such a mental sport. You get a lot of positive thoughts."

Here's what else English said during his sit-down with the media on Tuesday. Also joining him were OHL president Juan-Miguel Villar Mir and PGA Tour rookie Carlos Ortiz, a native of Guadalajara.

MODERATOR: Like to welcome you to the 2014 OHL Classic at Mayakoba. We're going to hear from each of our guests up on stage who we have our defending champion on the left here, Mr. Harris English, OHL President, Mr. Villar Mir, and PGA Tour rookie, Carlos Ortiz. We're going to start off with Mr. Villar Mir, if you could make some opening comments and then we'll go down the line.

JUAN-MIGUEL VILLAR MIR: (Opening statement in Spanish).

MODERATOR: Now we'll hear from defending champion, Harris English. Make some opening comments and your thoughts about returning here where you picked up a big win with a final round push last year, and we'll go over to Carlos after that.

HARRIS ENGLISH: I'd like to start off by first of all saying how cool is it for Mr. Villar Mir to be here and to see his passion on making the OHL Classic a mainstay on the PGA Tour and one of the best tournaments all year. Joe Mazzeo and his team have been awesome for me returning as defending champion. I came out for media day last month and had a great time. Love staying at the Fairmont. It's my first time staying at the Fairmont, and it's such a cool resort. It's a place I'll always want to come back to if I play golf or don't play golf. I'll always come here to vacation and have a good time.

I played a couple holes today. The course looks like it's in awesome shape. Looks like we're going to have really good weather this year, so I'm really looking forward to the challenge of defending my title. We've got a really good field this year, like Mr. Villar Mir said, and it's going to be a great week.

MODERATOR: Now we'll hear from PGA Tour rookie, Carlos Ortiz. Carlos, talk about what it means coming back to your home country, playing as a PGA Tour member this year, and your thoughts coming into this week?

CARLOS ORTIZ: (Answers in Spanish).

MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Harris, did you expect that this year this course the score was going to be so low? Last year there was a lot of rain, and these days it's going to be completely sunny. Does that make you change the way you play?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, it's going to be really good this week. Last year I had a 6 o'clock Pro Am on Wednesday, and somehow I had a rain delay. I think I woke up before 5:00 o'clock for five days in a row. Probably won't have that this year, but it's going to be really good weather. I think everybody's looking forward to it. The fairways are a little dry out there from what I can tell, but it's going to be a good week. It's really going to show off how good Mayakoba is and the Riviera Maya area. It's really going to be awesome for everybody coming in.

Q. Harris, Mr. Villar Mir mentioned that you were the greatest ambassador that the OHL Golf Classic has had. And the fact of the matter is that you have been very active in terms of your association with the tournament. Do you think that had any effect on you at all, perhaps the number of visits you've had to make down here in the actual end of year FedEx tournaments where you dropped down a bit?

HARRIS ENGLISH: Yeah, this tournament has done so much for me. I had no idea what went into the OHL Classic. I mean, how many people came out on Sunday and the community feel from this tournament, it really opened my eyes. Coming down here for media day when they had the big clinic one day, so many kids came out, so many people who had never even played golf before would come in and experience what the OHL Classic had to offer. It was really cool being able to help those people and to see the passion they had for the game.

But this Riviera Maya, Cancun area has been awesome. Everybody's been so nice to me and really reached out to me as one of their own. It's felt so good being a champion and to see all the billboards out there and to see how much they're trying to get this tournament to be one of the best on the PGA Tour, which, it's very, very close. Yeah, even though I didn't play as well as I wanted to coming out of the FedEx Cup playoffs, I knew that a lot of people down here were pulling for me as the reigning OHL Classic champion. It sure meant a lot, and hopefully I can have those fans again because it's really meant a lot to me.

Q. (Question to Carlos in Spanish).

CARLOS ORTIZ: (Answer in Spanish).

MODERATOR: Thank you each of our guests for being here, and best of luck to Harris and Carlos this week in the tournament.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.