Will Zalatoris' return to Southern Hills could lead to major breakthrough

TULSA, Okla. – Will Zalatoris first competed at Southern Hills eight years ago, as a recent high-school graduate with high upside but whose putter had kept him from reaching his full potential. He’d recently won his state amateur, the biggest title of his career and a sign that perhaps he was ready to capitalize on the ballstriking that already for years had been the fodder for legends around Dallas.

The Trans-Mississippi Amateur had existed for more than a century and counted Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw and Bryson DeChambeau as its champions when it came to Southern Hills in 2014. Zalatoris shot two rounds in the 60s to take the 36-hole lead. Then the thunderstorms rolled in and he was declared the winner without hitting another shot.

It was bittersweet for a teenager who wanted to test himself under the pressure but who'd just earned his first national amateur title.

“One day I hope to play professional golf and this is part of that process,” Zalatoris said after he was declared the champion. “I'm biased, but Southern Hills is seriously one of the best courses I've ever played. Everything is right in front of you; nothing is tricked up. And it is hard. I mean, this is a really hard golf course, and I love it."

The love affair has continued in his return to Tulsa eight years later for the PGA Championship. Zalatoris, who’s established himself as an almost automatic contender in majors since playing his way off the Korn Ferry Tour in late 2020, is the 36-hole leader after shooting 66-65. He’s one shot ahead of Mito Pereira, and leads Justin Thomas, by far the best player from the harder half of the draw, by three. Bubba Watson is 5 under par after a course-record tying 63, while Rory McIlroy and Zalatoris’ former roommate, Davis Riley, are tied for fifth, five shots back, along with Oklahoma alum Abraham Ancer.

Zalatoris has always been at his best when conditions are at their hardest. He has four top-10s in his last six appearances in majors. The game’s toughest setups, “let my ballstriking do the talking,” said the man who leads the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach this season. That’s why the idea of winning a major as his first TOUR title doesn’t feel unfathomable to Zalatoris.

His ability to thrive in difficult conditions is a combination of both nature and nurture. He grew up around major champions, and his peers were players who would go on to win them. Hitting balls under the watchful eyes of Ken Venturi and Lanny Wadkins and growing up alongside Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler is invaluable, but so is the preternatural gift that Zalatoris has displayed since he was a pre-teen.

When he was 12 years old, his coach at the time, David Price, would call out a shot shape mid-swing, forcing Zalatoris to make the necessary adjustments on the fly to produce the requested shot. “At 12 years old, this little bugger could do it,” Price said. It was at that same age that Zalatoris shot 65 to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur. The winner that year? Spieth, who won the same event again in 2011. Scheffler won it two years later, and then Zalatoris became the champion in 2014 (Riley lost in the championship match to both Scheffler and Zalatoris in those consecutive years).

Now Zalatoris is in position to follow in the footsteps of his childhood rivals by winning a major championship. His upright swing produces soaring iron shots and helps him hoist balls out of thick rough, two attributes that come in handy these weeks. That’s one reason he’s leading despite hitting just half his fairways through the first two rounds at Southern Hills. Only five players who made the cut have hit fewer fairways than Zalatoris. He still ranks in the top 10 of both greens hit and Strokes Gained: Approach despite missing more of Southern Hills’ expanded fairways than most of his fellow contenders. But the most promising development is his performance with the putter.

One week after a disheartening 36 holes on the greens led to a missed cut in his hometown AT&T Byron Nelson, Zalatoris leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+6.18). He made four putts outside 20 feet in the opening round. On Friday, his longest make was from 8 feet but he was a perfect 5 for 5 from that crucial distance of 5-10 feet. After Friday’s bogey-free round, where he hit just 11 greens, he sheepishly admitted, “I got away with murder a few times today for sure.”

Of the 10 greens he’s missed this week, he’s gotten up-and-down all but once. His ability to grind it out in tough conditions is enhanced by the gratitude he tries to bring into each major. While others may gripe about course conditions or difficult setups, the golf-obsessed Zalatoris tries to remind himself that these are the tournaments he dreamt as a kid about playing. A bit of self-belief doesn’t help either, especially for a player who has yet to win on TOUR. But no one has had success in this game without a healthy amount of confidence, even if it borders on delusion.

“Something Scottie Scheffler said the other day I think resonates a lot, where what made him become a major champion, he said that it was belief,” Zalatoris said. “I think that's kind of the same attitude that any of us have out here to win, whether it's a regular event, a Korn Ferry event, or a major.”

Eight years ago, he arrived at Southern Hills as a kid who just hoped to play pro golf. On Sunday, he could leave here as a major champion.