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WM PHOENIX OPEN 2022
W ILL ZAL ATORIS
RoOKIE SENSATION BY DOUG MILNE
For a guy who barely cracks the 150 pound mark standing on a scale, Will Zalatoris quickly established himself as one of the PGA TOUR’s heaviest hitters. The kind of early success, though, wasn’t something Zalatoris saw coming quite so soon. In 16 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, Zalatoris collected 10 Top-10 finishes. The highlight of that season was a victory at the TPC Colorado Championship. As successful as that season was, Zalatoris maintained the
The 2021 WM Phoenix Open was his second of seven-straight starts on TOUR, thanks to a sponsor exemption from tournament hosts, The Thunderbirds. Following an even-par-71 start in round one, Zalatoris gained ground with a 4-under 66 and 6-under 64 in rounds two and three, respectively. Another even-par 71 in Sunday’s final round resulted in a T-17 finish at 12-under 272. “The thing that I keep laughing about with the WM Phoenix
collected demeanor, which largely defines him, and never
Open is that even though it wasn’t full spectators last year,
got ahead of himself.
I was still clubbing down because I was so jacked up to hit
“Prior to last season, I could have never imagined having the success on TOUR that I did, that ultimately ended up with the ‘Rookie of the Year’ distinction,” Zalatoris said. “I had planned to spend another season on the Korn Ferry Tour to try and get my card that way. We think our careers should be a steady progression, but the reality is that it’s a lot of up-down-up-down. But, the general trend hopefully
shots,” he laughed.
“There is nothing like that event. It’s so much fun playing it. After watching it on TV as a kid and then to be a part of it is pretty cool.” Among eight Top-10 finishes last season were a
goes up. This past year was a pretty steep climb for me. So,
runner-up at the 2021 Masters, T-6 at the 2020 U.S. Open,
that award was definitely not even on the radar.”
T-7 at the Farmers Insurance Open and T-8 at the PGA
So, what exactly did last season’s PGA TOUR Rookie of
Championship. As a result, Zalatoris went from being a
the Year do that surprised even him? In September of 2020,
young gun without a PGA TOUR card to the 2020-21 PGA
Zalatoris had made seven starts on TOUR, without even a
TOUR Rookie of the Year.
top-25. In his next seven starts, though, beginning with a T-6 at the U.S. Open – he amassed four Top-10 finishes. “It was more fun than anything,” Zalatoris said. “I was coming from basically not having status and every week was just a chance to go win and get full status.”
Zalatoris got the 2021-22 season off to a strong start with a T-11 at the Fortinet Championship and T-14 in his next start at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He went into the holidays, though, with missed cuts in two of his last three starts.
