2020 Winner Will Zalatoris— One of Golf’ s Biggest Successes

Information: Information: tpccoloradochampionship.com tpccoloradochampionship.com

FROM DENVER - Interstate 25 North to Exit 250, West (6 miles) through the town of Berthoud, North on Berthoud Parkway, (2 miles). Cross Highway 287, make your first left onto the Heron Lakes Community on Grand Market, (½ mile) left on TPC Parkway to Club House FROM WYOMING - Interstate 25 South to Exit 250, West (6 miles) through the town of Berthoud, North on Berthoud Parkway, (2 miles). Cross Highway 287, make your first left onto the Heron Lakes Community on Grand Market, (½ mile) left on TPC Parkway to Club House

FROM LONGMONT - North on Highway 287 to Berthoud Parkway, North 100 ft. make your first left into the Heron Lakes Community on Grand Market, (½ mile) left on TPC Parkway to Club House FROM LOVELAND - South Highway 287, through the traffic circle (1/2 mile) make a right into the Heron Lakes Community on Grand Market, (½ mile) left on TPC Parkway to Club House

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The safety and well-being of everyone who attends a Tour event is a top priority, therefore guests are asked to follow provided guidelines for Permitted/Prohibited Items and Bag Policy. All persons and items are subject to search prior to entry. Persons found to be in possession of prohibited items or bags, will be asked to return those items to their vehicle before being allowed to board shuttles or enter the grounds. The tournament may not provide a “bag check” facility, so attendees are urged not to bring prohibited items.

Visit pgatour.com/company/tournaments-prohibited-items.html for a complete list of permitted and prohibited items as well as outline of the Bag Policy.

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2020 Winner Will Zalatoris— One of Golf’s Biggest Successes

By Andy Stonehouse for TPC Colorado

As the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes returns in an increasingly normalized world, there are some very high expectations for 2020’s champion.

Last year offered some unprecedented challenges for everyone in America, and the 2020 Korn Ferry Tour stop in Berthoud was an unexpected opportunity and showcase for Will Zalatoris, a young golfer who shot from being a relative unknown to a major national contender. Since then, he’s been recognized by celebrities and fans around the country, and comes back to Colorado as a player to watch, with a very strong 2021 season already under his belt.

The Wall Street Journal recently called Zalatoris the fastest-rising star in modern golf, acknowledging his rapid rise during the curious circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being ranked 543rd in the early part of 2020, Zalatoris managed a sixth-place finish at last year’s U.S. Open at Southern California’s Torrey Pines Golf Course.

It was, however, his 2020 win at Berthoud that truly pushed Zalatoris into the spotlight. He closed the TPC Colorado Championship with a finalround, three-under score of 69 to take a one-stroke victory over Chase Johnson. The win gave the young Zalatoris his first Korn Ferry Tour championship and pushed him to the top of the Korn Ferry Tour points list; it was his 26th Korn Ferry Tour start. So far in 2021, Zalatoris landed a T8 finish at the PGA Championship, his third top-10 spot in what is only his fourth major championship appearance. He also finished solo-second in his debut at the Masters Tournament, which gave him his first top-two finish on the PGA Tour. There, he was the only player to record under-par scores in all four rounds (70-68-71-70), and he led the field in Par-4 Scoring Average, with a 3.98.

Despite that important 2020 Colorado victory and his subsequent successes, there’s a slight oddity stemming from tour regulations and the COVID-19 challenges last season: the fast-moving Zalatoris still does not have his PGA Tour card, due to rule changes enacted to cope with the pandemic. But his top spot at Heron Lakes established him as a bright prospect who’s already had a 2021 for the record books, with his career earnings already pushing $4 million.

The 24-year-old, 6-foot-2 San Francisco native graduated from North Carolina’s Wake Forest University in 2018 with a Psychology degree. Now based in Plano, Texas, he’s been an avid golfer since childhood, and was 2014 US Junior Amateur champion. His honors quickly escalated in 2017 as he was a First-Team All-American, a Walker Cup Team Member and was selected as the 2017 AAC Player of the Year.

For much of his relatively brief time in the spotlight, observers have noted that the young golfer bears more than a slight resemblance to the caddy in Adam Sandler’s golf-themed 1996 “Happy Gilmore. ” This April, Sandler himself Tweeted in support of Zalatoris’s blossoming career, after Zalatoris offered to carry his fictional clubs: “Mr. Gilmore is watching you and is very proud. ”

Zalatoris also got some additional star-power support during his March 2021 appearance at the Players Championship, with former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo giving him some good-natured ribbing on his meteoric rise – not to mention words of encouragement from Zalatoris’s former coaches and fellow athletes as a Wake Forest Demon Deacon.

In April, he also announced his engagement to his girlfriend Caitlin Sellers, herself a former Demon Deacon athlete, earning lots of coverage on USA Today ’s Golfweek.

At last year’s TPC Colorado Championship, no one was more shocked or delighted by the win than Zalatoris himself. “It’s probably been four years since I’ ve won a golf tournament, ” he noted in 2020. “It still hasn’t sunk in, that’s the part that’s kind of crazy. ”

The clincher came with a birdie putt on Heron Lakes’ 128-yard par-3 16th hole, where Zalatoris took quick advantage of an eight-foot distance to the pin, and headed into the lead.

“Winning requires luck and that ball was literally two inches from rolling all the way down the front of the green, ” he said. “Taking advantage of that is what it takes to win tournaments. ”

Zalatoris finished the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship with a combined 15-under score of 273, edging out Johnson by a single point and beating fellow contenders Taylor Pendrith, Stephan Jaeger, Callum Tarren and Erik Barnes by two shots.

The Colorado win certainly put Zalatoris on his current trajectory, and he credited his coaches for that allimportant turning point in his career –with big plans for 2021 and beyond.

“These past two and a half years working with Josh Gregory and Troy Denton and just sticking to the process … It’s nice to see if finally pay off, ” he said.