Newest phenom on the PGA Tour is one-iron thin Will Zalatoris — the young man who nearly won The Green Jacket last week at The Masters — and he might have, had he not three-putted twice over the final nine holes and missed that short-one for par at 12.
Regardless, Will lost to Hideki Matsuyama by a shot but collected a “consolation prize” in the form of $1.24 million. That puts him north of $3 million earned on the PGA Tour and he’d be 14th on the money list if it weren’t for one small issue — he’s still not a card-carrying PGA Tour member. He is basically a “Special Temporary Member.”
The former Wake Forest star is in a weird PGA Tour limbo if you will. He tore up the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 with seven straight top-15 finishes and a win at the TPC Colorado Championship. Under normal circumstances, he would have earned his PGA Tour card last August as he was in the KFT’s top 25.
But the Tour, in all its wisdom decided that no one would lose their Tour card for the ’20-’21 season. The Tour decided there would be a “super-season” for both the regular tour and the Korn Ferry gang. Will Zalatoris was a victim of COVID-19 and never caught the bug.
With his tie for sixth at the U.S. Open and his runner-up at The Masters, not to mention all those money winnings, he’d be right up there in FedEx Cup points.
Even more impressive is the fact that he’s now ranked 27th in the world and has played in two WGC events — the Workday in Bradenton and the Match Play in Austin.
But as a “non-member,” Will The Thrill has no points on that FedEx Cup list.
It’s time for the PGA Tour to get with it. This situation is an abomination and an insult to a young star like Zalatoris.
The Tour could take care of this quite easily by adding this language to its long list of “language” for Tour Membership:
“If a player reaches the top 30 in the Official World Golf Rankings, he is immediately eligible for PGA Tour full-member status if he chooses to accept said status.
As it stands now, the only way for Zalatoris to gain full membership is to win a tournament and he may well do that before the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Worst scenario is that he is guaranteed to be fully exempt for the 2021-22 season via the top 125 non-member category. He won’t be eligible for play in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals as he wouldn’t improve his status through those events.
Zalatoris was once again in the hunt at The Heritage on Thursday after his opening round 68 at the Harbor Town Golf Links. He was three-under and botched up the easiest hole on the course, the par five second where his second shot from the trees went out-of-bounds and he took double-bogey on the hole. He played with world’s No. 1 Dustin Johnson, who basically sleep-walked his way around in the morning wave and all he could manage was a one-under par 70.
Zalatoris admitted, “I’m a little fried,” after the run he’s been on and the effort he put forth at The Masters. “I thought I did a nice job today of kind of staying patient knowing that I probably wasn’t going to be as mentally fresh,” Zalatoris added.
By day’s end he found himself five back of Cameron Smith’s first-round leading 62, nine-under.
Stewart Cink, who will turn 48 next month, went our early and shot an eight-under par 63 in the morning wave, his career-best at The Heritage, an event he’s won twice (2000, 2004).
Zalatoris will play in the afternoon Friday, looking forward to the weekend and another possible high finish.
He has all the tool, all the talent and that impressive world ranking.
But he still has no Tour card.
3 Comments
baxter cepeda
That’s an extended argument for something that It is what it is.
The language is simple: he has to win. This will help his will to stay motivated to win.
More so I’m not sure will even cares about the situation.
What’s awesome about zalatoris now is he seems to legitimately be playing for the love and the trophies more than the money.
As you stated the guy has made a lot of money already and the boat loads will only keep arriving at Wills dock for decades to come.
Will will be a member soon enough. Will will be fine.
Tom Edrington
With the No. 27 ranking, the stat geeks that figure those indicate to us that he’s better than most of the guys who have Tour cards!
baxter cepeda
No doubt about that. After the Masters we don’t even need the rankings to know that. All we need is eyes.
I can literally feel him growing on me; which means the same thing is happening with sponsors, event organizers and golf VIPs in general. He will be fine.
He should win soon….hopefully.