BROOKLINE, Mass. — As Will Zalatoris’ drive on No. 18 whipped into the wind and took a hard right, soaring over the grandstand and nestling up next to another, he almost seemed to enjoy it.
He had a similar reaction when he came nowhere close on a 9-foot par putt.
Zalatoris smiled. He looked at his caddie and laughed. In both cases, he recovered with some quality emergency golf that has left him in prime position at the U.S. Open.
The more difficult the challenge, the better for the 25-year-old who wasn’t even ranked in the top-500 just four years ago but has shot up to No. 14 in the world and now has a great chance at his first major title.
With strong winds, narrow fairways, unforgiving fescue and greens that nobody seems to be able to read at The Country Club this week, not many of the world’s best golfers have been able to shoot par with any consistency.
Zalatoris has. And with cooler temperatures expected to keep the greens quick and the course tricky on Sunday, the fearless San Francisco kid is loving it.
“Very San Francisco-like,” said Zalatoris, who had a course-best 3-under-par 67 on Saturday to push himself to 4 under par with a share of the lead as he walked off No. 18. “That was brutal. I think it took a lot of discipline today.”
Zalatoris hasn’t been a household name in golf, but maybe he should be.
At 21 years old, he dropped out of Wake Forest University in 2018 to pursue a professional career, relying on Monday qualifying to gain entry into the Korn Ferry Tour. He’s only won a single professional event — the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship on the KFT — but has never won on the PGA Tour or at a major tournament.
With ball-striking ability considered among the best in the world, Zalatoris has felt it coming. He finished as runner-up in the 2021 Masters and pushed Justin Thomas into a playoff at the PGA Championship earlier this year.
“I think especially coming off the PGA it gave me a lot of belief and confidence that I belong in this situation,” he said. “There’s a difference in thinking it and then actually being in the situation and believing it. So I think that’s probably the biggest change.”
The trouble, thus far, has been his putting, which has caused him to adopt a rare approach in which he tucks his shirt into his left armpit and holds his putter firm with his left wrist, using only the fingers on his right hand to guide the club through.
On moving day, Zalatoris found his groove on the green. He hit a 13-foot putt for birdie on No. 2, drained a 16-footer for birdie on No. 4 and a 19-footer for birdie on No. 9 as he charged up the leaderboard.
He averaged just 1.5 putts per hole on Saturday, far better than the 1.65 average from the field.
“I think speed has always been the best part of my putting,” he said. “And I keep giving myself as many 25- to 35-footers that I can out here.”
The crazy conditions in Brookline have been a recipe for success for a player who can manipulate the ball with ease. The big wind gusts and unforgiving rough has eliminated the weak while offering a chance for premium ball-strikers to push through.
“Literally when people ask me what’s the toughest golf course you’ve ever played, I’ve said The Country Club since 2013,” he said.
And yet he hit 64% of the fairways (51% was average) and 67% of the greens (52% was average) to finish his incredible round with a 67.
“You can’t play defensive on this golf course,” he said. “You almost have to play aggressively defensive. You’ve got to be hitting a lot of shots towards the middle of the greens. There’s still no cakewalks, 9-, 8-, 7-irons into this place, you can make a mess real fast.”
The green on No. 12 was so tricky that Jordan Spieth three-putted from 4 feet, then shook his head in disbelief.
One after another, golfers hit their downhill putts too hard and too far right, looking baffled as they got low to the ground to discover what was going on.
Zalatoris had no trouble with it, though, hitting a 10-footer for par early in the day.
“This is how a U.S. Open should be,” said Thomas, who narrowly beat Zalatoris at the PGA Championship this year. “It’s very difficult. Par is a great score on a lot of holes. Bogeys aren’t going to kill you. We don’t do this very often, and I think it’s very, very fitting and totally acceptable to have this kind of test and this difficult setup for a U.S. Open, and it’s strictly because of conditions.”
Zalatoris loves it.
He climbed the world rankings from No. 2,006 in 2018, to No. 672 in ‘19, to No. 59 in ‘20 and No. 34 in ‘21 largely because of his ability to get to the green.
Now he’s got the putter working, too, and the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Zalatoris looks like an unstoppable force.
“A lot of golfers will attest that when we’re playing poorly, we think we’re playing worse, and when we’re playing well, we think we’re Tiger (Woods),” Zalatoris said. “I found something literally Wednesday night, and it clicked immediately. That really made me feel that I can be one of the world-class players and one of the best in the world.”
