Alvaro Ortiz captures first Korn Ferry Tour title at UNC Health Championship

Alvaro Ortiz birdies the first playoff hole to defeat Ross Steelman and win the UNC Health Championship, his first Korn Ferry Tour title.

Charting the champion (stats updated through tournament)

Alvaro Ortiz (first/-10)

• Defeats Ross Steelman with a birdie on the first hole (No. 18) of a sudden-death playoff to capture his first Korn Ferry Tour victory in his 84th start
• Made back-to-back birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 for a 2-over 72 final round to force a playoff with Steelman
• First Korn Ferry Tour winner since Smylie Kaufman at the 2015 United Leasing and Finance Championship to record two or more double bogeys or worse in the final round; Ortiz made double bogey at the par-4 second and par-4 11th
• Earns first Korn Ferry Tour victory at 30 years, 6 months, 16 days
• In the third round, recorded the 30th hole-in-one in UNC Health Championship history on the par-3 sixth with a 2-iron from 259 yards en route to a 1-under 69
• Logged an 18-hole career low in the second round of the UNC Health Championship with an 8-under 62 (previous best: 63; three occurrences)
• Seventh player representing Mexico to win on the Korn Ferry Tour (last: Emilio Gonzalez/2025 Albertsons Boise Open presented by Chevron)
• Best finish in five previous appearances at the UNC Health Championship was T4/2024
• Finished No. 26 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List in his third season on Tour, earning full status for the 2026 season
• Previously recorded finishes of No. 133 (2022) and No. 57 (2024) on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List
• Played two seasons on PGA TOUR Latinoamérica (2020-21; 2023), highlighted by a No. 4 finish on the 2020-21 Order of Merit, as well as a victory at the 2020 Abierto Mexicano de Golf
• Decorated amateur career included a victory at the 2019 Latin America Amateur Championship, which earned him an exemption for the 2019 Masters Tournament (finished T36 and was the second-lowest amateur, only behind Viktor Hovland, who finished T32)
• Played four seasons at University of Arkansas (2014-18), where he earned two collegiate victories

Additional notes

• Ross Steelman (second/-10), who entered the final round six strokes off the lead, carded a 4-under 66 final round to force a playoff with 54-hole leader and eventual champion Alvaro Ortiz.
• Steelman, who is a fourth-year Korn Ferry Tour member, establishes a new career-best finish in his 64th start on Tour (previous best finish: solo-third/2024 The Bahamas Great Golf Classic at Atlantis Paradise Island).
• Conditional member Tyler Wilkes (T3/-8), who earned a start at this week’s UNC Health Championship by virtue of his top-25 finish at the Visit Knoxville Open (T23), records the best result of his career in his third Korn Ferry Tour start, earning a spot in next week’s BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX with a second consecutive top-25 finish.
• Turk Pettit (T5/-6) closes in 6-under 64 for the low score of the final round and logs his second top-five finish on the season in his sixth start (Colonial Life Charity Classic/T4).
• Logan McAllister (T5/-6), who finished No. 29 on the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List, logs his second top-10 finish of the season (other: The Bahamas Great Golf Classic/T6) and first top five since his win at the 2025 Astara Chille Classic presented by Scotiabank.
• Cooper Dossey (T7/-5) records a second consecutive top-10 finish (T3/Visit Knoxville Open) and his fifth of the 2026 season; only Ian Gilligan and Hunter Eichhorn have more top 10s with six.
• Zak Fischer (T7/-5), who made his eighth career start at the UNC Health Championship this week, notched his first top-10 finish on Tour since his T10 at the 2023 Veritex Bank Championship.