Will Zalatoris

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – It's a universal truth that the more you struggle with something, the more whoever holds the cosmic marionette strings upstairs will ...

Perhaps he will zealously protect his lead at this week’s BMW Championship, and win the TOUR Championship, too, becoming the first to win PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year and the FedExCup in consecutive seasons. He needed to find a way to make from close range when he absolutely had to have it, and when he did, after he’d paid homage to Curry, he did it again, and yet a third time. With each close call, with each sit-down with his team to see where he could have done better, he kept coming back to the putting. They switched it up in the second round, Zalatoris calling in his new bag man for reads as he made nearly 105 feet of putts and ranked second in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. (He was 25th for the week.) They did the same for the third and fourth rounds, too, and the playoff. The three times he played the 18th hole – once in regulation, twice in the playoff – he saved par from a fairway bunker, the rough, and deep in the trees. He pumped his fist and hollered, “What are they gonna say now?!” It was a nod to Stephen Curry, who said the same thing after the Golden State Warriors won the most recent NBA title. Gregory said he heard from “about 50 guys who wanted the job.” You can’t play as good as he does and not be a good putter, and to make those down the stretch was pretty awesome. Zalatoris was always going to have to own the moment with the putter to win. I follow the Warriors like crazy and when he said that, it kind of related to kind of my journey so far. “I did say that,” Zalatoris, who grew up in the Bay Area before moving to Dallas, said sheepishly. His eyes welled with tears, and he struggled to speak.

Will Zalatoris had his first full week with new caddie Joel Stock. The pair faced a brutal decision at the peak of the FedEx St. Jude playoff.

“We went back to the drop zone and obviously it paid off,” Zalatoris concluded. And then he buried the putt, dripping it in the middle of the cup to secure the win. Instead he’d assumed Zalatoris had an easy up and down, aimed for the pin himself and found the water en route to 5. But if he attempted the shot and failed, Zalatoris risked bouncing it off the grass lip and back into the water, leading to double bogey or worse. Stock wanted him to head to the drop zone and try to get up and down for bogey and the win. Zalatoris’ ball had bounced some half-dozen times or more, pinballing around a narrow stretch of rock before it came to rest wedged between the collar of the grass and the rock wall separating water from land.

Will Zalatoris claimed a maiden PGA Tour title, edging out Sepp Straka in a play-off to win the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Zalatoris flirted with the water, only for his ball to remarkably stay on the rocks just off the fringe of the green, while Straka was not so fortunate. Zalatoris also finished as runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in the 2021 Masters. Will Zalatoris claimed a maiden PGA Tour title, edging out Sepp Straka in a play-off to win the FedEx St Jude Championship.

The American defeated Austria's Sepp Straka in three extra holes at TPC Southwind – despite not making a birdie. Download.

It capped off what had already been a dramatic final round. However, Straka’s tee shot ended up in the water, leaving a slight window for Zalatoris to strike. WILL ZALATORIS CLAIMED his maiden PGA Tour victory in a dramatic playoff at the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Will Zalatoris' short tour career has been filled with close calls. But he now finally has that first PGA Tour win after a wild Sunday at the FedEx St. Jude ...

The second at the PGA was kind of affirmation that it wasn't a fluke of a week, and the third one at the U.S. Open gave me that much more belief that I can win a major, I can win out here." Zalatoris' season has been a gutting run of almosts, highlighted by a playoff loss to Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship and a runner-up finish at the U.S. Open after a closing duel with eventual winner Matt Fitzpatrick. It was particularly gratifying that his most clutch shots down the stretch came with the putter, which has long been seen as his greatest weakness. Sitting in front of the media, a small grin spreading beneath his aquiline nose, Zalatoris made it clear that he never felt any self-pity, even during the close calls. On Sunday, Stock was in his ear at the most critical time to help him avoid making a bad decision, but throughout the round he managed to keep him calm, at times resorting to what Zalatoris called "dad jokes." He made par, and only Zalatoris' 14-foot par putt following an errant tee shot that stayed in bounds by the good graces of a friendly tree kept Straka from winning right there. It was Stock who seemed intent on almost forcing his player to the drop zone on 11. Stock was working for Zalatoris for the first time after Zalatoris split with his friend Ryan Goble in the middle of the Wyndham Championship a week earlier. As Straka made his way to the drop zone, took an aggressive line on his third shot, and sent it into the bunker, Zalatoris and his new caddie, Joel Stock, were intently contemplating their next move. Which brings us to the first moment, when Straka proceeded to the drop zone without getting a good glimpse of the Zalatoris’ lie. "I thought there was no chance that ball was covering the water," Zalatoris said later. A chaotic playoff reached feverish heights (or depths, depending on your perspective) when Zalatoris reached the par-3 11th hole, the third and final theater of his duel against Sepp Straka at the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Zalatoris had honors, but his shot was in trouble immediately. It came up well short of the green, and as it bounced eight times along the stone facade separating dry land from the water, it seemed ludicrous to believe that it wouldn't eventually careen off at the wrong angle and disappear into the beckoning pond.

Will Zalatoris claimed a maiden PGA Tour title, edging out Sepp Straka in a play-off to win the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Zalatoris flirted with the water, only for his ball to remarkably stay on the rocks just off the fringe of the green, while Straka was not so fortunate. Zalatoris also finished as runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in the 2021 Masters. Will Zalatoris claimed a maiden PGA Tour title, edging out Sepp Straka in a play-off to win the FedEx St Jude Championship.

After a penalty drop from the rocks beside the par-3 11th green, Zalatoris saved bogey to defeat Sepp Straka and become a first-time winner.

He birdied the first hole, made only one other birdie, shot 70 and tied for 13th. Straka, already a winner this year in the Honda Classic, narrowly missed a 20-foot birdie putt for the win on the 18th for a 67. Glover closed with a 66 and wound up in a tie for third. British Open champion Cameron Smith could have replaced him by winning, and he arrived at the TPC Southwind two shots out of the lead. They checked with Smith, who confirmed it was touching the line. He looked to be in trouble from a fairway bunker on the 18th in regulation until Zalatoris made that 10-footer for par at a 4-under 66. Straka followed with a shot that hit the bank, took one bounce off the rocks and went into the water. “This course is where every shot you hit you’re on the edge of your seat,” Straka said. He played his fourth shot out to 4 feet as Zalatoris was still going over his options. Lucas Glover came away with a consolation prize. His tee shot hit the bank and then bounced seven times on the rocks before coming to rest. “Considering all those close finishes, it means a lot.”

Will Zalatoris channeled his inner Stephen Curry Sunday as he rolled in the putt that would get him into a playoff with Sepp Straka.

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Coming off of his breakthrough victory in Memphis, Zalatoris is 14-1 to grab another W in Delaware.

Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and Matthew Fitzpatrick check in next, with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler also near the top at 16-1. Jason Day, Billy Horschel, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy (again, 2012), Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and Tiger Woods all won multiple playoff events, too. Winning PGA Tour events in back-to-back weeks is a seemingly impossible feat, though it's one Tony Finau accomplished no more than two weeks ago.

Will Zalatoris is always available to caddie for Mr. Gilmore, except when he's winning on the PGA Tour.

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In one weekend, Will Zalatoris notched his maiden victory on the PGA Tour, usurped Scottie Scheffler for the No. 1 spot in the FedExCup Playoff rankings and ...

Meanwhile, Lee Westwood is close to dropping out of the top 100 after falling five spots from No. 93 to No. 98. Almost all the LIV defectors took a slight hit to their ranking, but most notable of the group was Patrick Reed, who competed in an Asian Tour event in order to try and gain some world-ranking points. Meanwhile, Tony Finau took a step back to No. 14 after jumping from No. 16 to No. 13 thanks to back-to-back Tour wins earlier in August. Inside the top 10, the only other movement came from Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele, who swapped places. Dustin Johnson dropped out of the top 20, from No. 18 to No. 21, while rookie Joohyung “Tom” Kim rose two spots to No. 19. U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick was one of those dominos, dropping out of the top 10 to No. 11.

In today's Play Smart column, we're taking a good look at Will Zalatoris' putting performance, and what we can learn from it.

But because his ball-striking and distance putting are so rock-solid, he can glean more of an advantage from the hot putting days when they do arrive. In boasting a high level of consistency from tee-to-green, Zalatoris has situated his game so he is ready to take advantage of the good putting streaks whenever they do come. Short putting is important, obviously, but it’s also just a sliver of what happens on the greens. While it’s worth noting that he’s currently the leader on Tour in putts made from three feet, that’s more of a statistical quirk than anything else (I’ll explain why in a second). The fact remains he ranks 187th on tour in putting between four and eight feet, making about 64 percent of his putts from that range compared with the Tour average of 69 percent. In real terms, that equates to 10 putts over the course of this season that Zalatoris missed which the average PGA Tour player from this range made. It probably speaks to fans’ tendency to generalize and oversimplify that we landed on this conclusion about Zalatoris. Indeed, it’s true that putting isn’t the strength of Zalatoris’ game.

They say it takes a village, and in golf, that village consists of many more stakeholders than just a player and their caddie.

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