Will Zalatoris is a goal setter. And not just any goals but big, lofty, ambitious goals.
“My goal for really this past year was to try to win three times on the Korn Ferry to get myself to the PGA Tour. Obviously, I got to the PGA Tour a different route,” said Zalatoris, who earned a special temporary membership before graduating to the big leagues by finishing in the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour money list en route to earning PGA Tour rookie of the year honors. “Most of the time I don’t really reach my goals in the timeline that I’d like just because I set them so high, but it was nice to actually beat one for the first time really in my career.”
Finally a full-fledged PGA Tour member, Zalatoris threatened to claim his first PGA Tour victory at each of his first two starts of the new season before settling for a T-11 finish at the Fortinet Championship and a T-14 at the Sanderson Farms Championship. (He missed the cut at his most recent start at the Shriners Children’s Open.)
Zalatoris, who enters the week ranked No. 31 in the world, made the trip to Chiba, Japan for this week’s Zozo Championship, which was contested at Sherwood Country Club in California due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zozo Championship: Tee times | Odds
“I’ve always wanted to come to Japan. My fiancée and I, we’ve had this as No. 1 on our bucket list of places to go,” he said. “I would love to go out and really see Tokyo, but obviously with COVID it’s a little bit of a bummer.”
Zalatoris would like nothing more than another Sunday duel with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who edged him at the Masters to become the first Asian male player to win a major, and a chance to finish atop the leaderboard this time. Zalatoris’s runner-up finish at Augusta National lifted him to No. 27 in the world after finishing the 2019 season at No. 672. Now, he’s being counted among the headliners at tournaments such as this one. On Monday, he played nine holes with fellow Tour pro Harry Higgs and they agreed that Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club reminded them of Augusta National and Olympia Fields in Chicago.
“It definitely fits me,” Zalatoris said of the layout where Tiger Woods triumphed in 2019. “I think the weather kind of reminds me of the Bay area a little bit, where I was born in San Francisco.”
Zalatoris has enjoyed a fruitful season and exceeded his goals. All that’s left is to notch that first win on the PGA Tour. He’s been knocking on the door lately, and said he wouldn’t mind at all if his breakthrough were to be in the Land of the Rising Sun.
“I think Mississippi (at the Sanderson Farms Championship) kind of sums up kind of how I feel over the last couple weeks,” he said, “where I kind of had three marginal days and throwing in a 61 in there. So, the good is definitely there for me to contend and win, especially to come here first time to Asia to hopefully get my first victory would be very cool.”
