10 things to know about Will Zalatoris as he readies for first post-surgery major

Here are 10 things to know about Will Zalatoris, the 27-year-old golfer out of Dallas who has solidified himself as one of golf’s rising stars:

1. Back on track

It appears Zalatoris has bounced back from 2023 back surgery that ended his season. As he prepares to make his third appearance at The Masters, and his first major tournament since return from surgery, Zalatoris has played in seven tournaments to start 2024. He’s managed two top five finishes, tying for second at the Genesis Invitational and fourth at the Arnold Palmer. Most recently Zalators missed the cut at the Players Championship and finished tied for 74th at the Texas Open.

Zalatoris returns to Augusta where his 2023 season ended: He withdrew due to back issues prior to the start of the first round of the tournament.

In that sense, The Masters has been a very up-and-down place for Zalatoris during his career...

2. Very memorable breakthrough

Most golf fans’ introduction to Zalatoris was during the 2021 Masters. It was there that Zalatoris, a 24-year-old upstart that was playing in Korn Ferry Tour events just six months earlier, found himself battling it out with Hideki Matsuyama and fellow DFW product Jordan Spieth for a green jacket.

Zalatoris ultimately fell one shot short of Matsuyama and finished in solo second place, good for a payday of $1,242,000. But that showing not only made him a household name to a number of previously unaware golf fans, it also vaulted Zalatoris to No. 27 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

3. A major performer

Zalatoris’ breakthrough at Augusta was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to strong showings at major championships.

Heading into The Masters, Zalatoris has six top-10 finishes in his first 11 career major championship appearances. A closer look:

• 2018 US Open: Zalatoris missed the cut in his major debut. He earned a spot in the tournament through local qualifying.
• 2020 US Open: Zalatoris finished in a tie with Dustin Johnson for 6th place, a finish that netted him $424,040 and signaled Zalatoris’ elevation from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour.
• 2021 Masters: Zalatoris finished in solo 2nd place, good for the first million-dollar payday of his career.
• 2021 PGA Championship: Zalatoris finished in a tie for 8th place in his first and only career PGA Championship.
• 2021 US Open: Zalatoris missed the cut.
• 2021 British Open: Despite shooting an opening-round 69, Zalatoris had to withdraw in his British Open debut because of an injury he suffered late in his first round.
• 2022 Masters: Zalatoris finished in a tie for 6th place thanks to a final-round 67.
• 2022 PGA Championship: Zalatoris finished in solo 2nd place after losing in a playoff to Justin Thomas.
• 2022 US Open: Zalatoris became a three-time major championship runner-up after finishing tied for second.

4. Overshadowing the Masters?

Zalatoris’ Masters breakthrough wasn’t even the highlight of his month back in April of 2021.

Shortly after his second-place finish at Augusta, Zalatoris proposed to his long-time girlfriend Caitlin Sellers.

The two met at Wake Forest, where Zalatoris played college golf for three seasons before turning pro in 2018.

5. No LIV lost

Zalatoris is an outspoken opponent of the LIV tour.

In a 2023 interview on 96.7 FM The Ticket [KTCK-AM], Zalatoris was asked about his decision to turn down an offer to play on the LIV tour, a decision Zalatoris said he was “pretty comfortable with.”

Zalatoris: “The most important thing is, this is the place that I’ve always wanted to play. The happiness that I had being with my friends on the PGA Tour as opposed to basically what was going on with LIV, it’s just a completely different culture.

“To me, it’s invaluable being able to show up and do something every day that I get to basically control my own destiny. I show up and I’m not controlled by anything else. It’s my job and I’m an independent contractor at the end of the day.”

6. Cali born, Texas raised

Much like fellow 27-year-old DFW golf star Scottie Scheffler (who was born in New Jersey but moved to the Metroplex when he was in elementary school), Zalatoris was born outside of the Lone Star State but moved to Texas as a youngster and thrived in the local golf scene.

After getting initial golf instruction from former U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi as a 6 year old in San Francisco, most of Zalatoris’ learning and development came in Texas after he moved to Texas as a pre-teen.

7. Rookie brilliance

Zalatoris took a while to collect his first PGA Tour win, but his rookie year was one for the ages.

At the end of the 2021 season, Zalatoris was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year — an accomplishment nobody would have expected at the start of the year, given the fact that Zalatoris didn’t even had a PGA Tour card. He became the first player to be voted Rookie of the Year without having a card in 20 years (Charles Howell III did so in 2001).

8. A sign of things to come

Zalatoris finds himself competing with other DFW stars like Spieth and Scheffler on a regular basis now that they’re all PGA Tour stars. But those battles started long before they were competing for millions on golf’s grandest stage.

Zalatoris and Scheffler are separated by only a couple months in age, so the two played together quite frequently as juniors. Spieth was three grades ahead of them growing up, but the three found themselves clashing on the junior circuit quite often.

That included events like the 2009 U.S. Amateur, when Zalatoris qualified as a 12 year old and competed as a 13 year old, alongside Scheffler and Spieth.

Zalatoris didn’t end up winning the hardware that year, but he did hoist the trophy a few years later. Representing TCA-Addison in 2014, Zalatoris won the U.S. Junior Amateur title in 2014.

One of Zalatoris’ favorite stories to tell about the three is a time when he and Scheffler were 11 and they played a round with Spieth (who was 14 at the time) at Bent Tree. Spieth’s first tee shot flared right, but he scrambled to save par. Spieth then birdied six of the next eight holes for a 29 on his way to a course-record 63. Yes, as a 14-year-old kid.

9. He’s not Happy Gilmore’s caddie

When Zalatoris first broke onto the golf scene, golf fans on social media were quick to point out their favorite Zalatoris doppelgängers.

Zalatoris has said he gets comparisons to Owen Wilson quite a bit, but the one that gained the most steam during the 2021 Masters was a comparison to Jared van Snellenberg. If that doesn’t sound like a household name to you, don’t worry. He hasn’t been in a film in nearly 20 years, according to his imdb page. But the role most golf fans know van Snellenberg for is the role of “Happy Gilmore’s caddie” in the 1996 film Happy Gilmore.

The comparisons got so mainstream that even Adam Sandler, star of Happy Gilmore, tweeted Zalatoris during the 2021 Masters and joined the fray. Sandler tweeted “Have fun today young man. Mr. Gilmore is watching you and very proud.”

Zalatoris handled it with good humor, responding to Sandler by saying “If you’re ever in need of a caddie again let me know. I’ll be better this time. I’m always available for you, Mr. Gilmore.”

10. A famous “big brother”

Zalatoris may be an only child, but he still has a “big brother.” That’s the title he has reserved for former Cowboys QB Tony Romo. The two played golf nearly every day during the 2020 pandemic at Bent Tree or Carrollton’s Maridoe Golf Club, formerly Columbian Country Club.

Zalatoris told Golf Digest “I was lucky. In Texas, we couldn’t practice, but we could play. It brought me back to being a kid. I’d go to the course, carrying my bag, playing with my buddies, just trying to beat the crap out of each other. Our crew of Davis Riley, Kevin Dougherty and Tony Romo played money games five days a week for four months. It made us all really sharp. When tournaments started up, I was ready to go. I realized I don’t need to be on the range for hours; I need to play. The shutdown simplified things.”

A month before his Masters breakthrough in 2021, Zalatoris was surprised by Romo with a congratulatory message for qualifying for The PLAYERS Championship. A feat that would soon eclipsed by his performance at Augusta a month later, but was at the time a career highlight:

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