Will Zalatoris' Climb to Success Makes Him a PGA Tour Star-In-Waiting
AUSTIN, Texas — Will Zalatoris has a standard response any time a media member wants to feature him as a rising talent or his buddies back home in Dallas want to rib him for being an out-of-touch superstar.
“Why would they want to talk to me,” he said with a flat stare. “I haven’t won anything yet.”
It’s true. The 25-year-old Texan is still searching for his first PGA Tour win (he has one on the Korn Ferry Tour). But Zalatoris’ performance at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play served further notice that Zalatoris is a sure-fire star-in-waiting and the next big step is bound to happen much sooner than later.
Zalatoris reached the round of 16 after winning his group on Friday with late clutch-putting over bonafide star Victor Hovland. He followed that Saturday morning with a 22-hole playoff victory over match-play specialist Kevin Na. Zalatoris’ run through the bracket ended Saturday afternoon with a loss to former WGC Match Play champion Kevin Kisner, 4 and 3.
“That was a great win,” Zalatoris said Saturday afternoon after he outlasted Na in four extra holes. “This is what I wanted to do my entire life and I’m continuing to gain confidence.”
Putting has been preventing Zalatoris from breaking through but that part of his game won him the matches against Hovland and Na. Longtime mentor and coach David Price noticed Zalatoris’ was much improved with the putter when he visited Zalatoris in Dallas last week.
“His putting looked good to me when I was there,” said Price, who first started teaching Zalatoris when he was an eager junior at Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas. “He had moved his hand a little higher in his grip and it seemed to make a difference.”
Price walked both the morning and afternoon rounds with his prized student at hilly Austin Country Club, along with his full-time coach, Josh Gregory, and Caitlin Sellers, Zalatoris’ fiance . They plan to be married in December.
Zalatoris holed a dramatic 18th-hole birdie to tie the match against Na and he won the match four holes later with a birdie at the par-4 13th hole.
“That was another good step for Will,” said Price. “He didn’t have much time to rest between (the afternoon) matches and he might have gotten indigestion trying to choke down lunch.
Zalatoris’ learning curve has been steep. His resume includes a U.S. Boys Junior title and an All-American selection at Wake Forest University. But his introduction on the world stage came in his debut at the Masters in 2021. His runner-up finish at Augusta National served as his introduction to the golf world as a player to be noticed. He was the only player in the field to post four under-par rounds and he led that week in par-4 scoring average.
However, during that week, Zalatoris had become a social media star as a lookalike for Happy Gilmore’s blonde, frizzy-haired caddie in the cult hit movie of the same name. In fact, Zalatoris received a good-luck tweet from Adam Sandler, who played Happy Gilmore.
Combine the Masters and the movie and Zalatoris was suddenly a recognizable celebrity. “It was wild,” he said. “I go into the same store or shop, that I been to six months straight and now every person there knows my name or what I do and wants a picture or to say something.”
Zalatoris hasn’t been a one-hit celebrity on the PGA Tour. He finished T8 at the 2021 PGA Championship and a month later, was T6 at the U.S. Open. That was with no status on Tour. He earned enough points to become a Special Temporary Member and became a full member for the 2021-22 season.
In May, the PGA Championship will be conducted at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was the site of Zalatoris’ victory at the 2014 Trans-Mississippi Amateur.
“I can’t wait to get back to Southern Hills for the PGA Championship. It’s an old-school layout, which we don’t play very often. The Masters will be great, but so will the PGA,” he said.
To be clear, as Zalatoris would say, he hasn’t won anything yet, but those who know him best believe the time for that to change is just around the corner.