BROOKLINE, Mass. — As his putt approached the outlet on the 18th inexperienced on Sunday night, Will Zalatoris thought he was headed to an exhilarating playoff that will decide the U.S. Open champion. All the ball needed to do was drop and Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick would settle issues in a two-hole playoff.
“With about six feet to go, I thought I had it,” Zalatoris mentioned. He had checked his cellphone earlier and seen what Paul Azinger, the NBC golf analyst and former PGA Tour professional, had been saying. “That everyone missed that putt high,” Zalatoris added.
“He continued, ‘I was the closest one all day. I was, like, ‘thanks for the consolation prize.’”
Zalatoris is changing into painfully accustomed to comfort prizes. Last month, he misplaced the P.G.A. Championship to Justin Thomas in a playoff at Southern Hills in Tulsa. He completed second to Hideki Matsuyama within the 2021 Masters, simply seven months faraway from the Korn Ferry Tour. And now, one other second place end in one other main.
“It stings obviously to have three runners-up so far in my career in majors,” he mentioned. “We’re obviously doing the right things. I’d pay a lot of money for about an inch and a half, and I’d probably be a three-time major champion at this point. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing.”
Zalatoris can look to the good Ben Hogan for historic comparability. Hogan was repeatedly labeled a bridesmaid for his incapability to win a significant all through the early and mid Nineteen Forties. He misplaced a playoff to Byron Nelson on the 1942 Masters after main by three photographs. He misplaced an opportunity at a playoff within the 1946 Masters when he three-putted from 12 toes, lacking a 30-inch putt.
“It just wasn’t my time to win,” Hogan advised The New York Times. “However, there’s another year coming.” Two months later, on the U.S. Open exterior Cleveland, he once more three-putted on the 72nd gap, lacking one other quick putt and falling out of a playoff received by Lloyd Mangrum. But later that 12 months, he received the P.G.A. Championship, the primary of his 9 majors.
The distinction is that in contrast to Hogan, who had established himself as one of many recreation’s premier gamers by persistently successful different tournaments, Zalatoris continues to be in search of his first victory on the PGA Tour. The consensus is that Zalatoris’s placing — significantly the quick putt — is his Achilles’ heel. Though he putted comparatively effectively on the Country Club — till he missed that birdie on the final gap within the closing spherical — he entered the match ranked one hundred and sixtieth on the tour in placing.
Asked what he thought when he noticed Zalatoris line up a putt, Collin Morikawa mentioned, “I pray for him. I mean, look, I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’ve said it since college, anything outside of that 8- to 10-foot zone, I mean, it’s as smooth as anyone else’s stroke.”
And within 10 toes?
“We’ve seen some squirrelly putts,” Morikawa mentioned. “Not that I’m the best putter and I have had that little squirreliness too, but I think we all kind of get on our toes when we see it.”
Zalatoris had no bother successful earlier than he arrived on the PGA Tour. He received the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur championship. At Wake Forest, he was an All-American and ACC Player of the Year. He twice received the Trans-Mississippi Amateur championship. He was on the victorious 2017 U.S. Walker Cup group, which additionally featured Scottie Scheffler, who tied with Zalatoris for second place on Sunday, and Morikawa, who completed tied for fifth.
This season, along with three second-place finishes on the majors, Zalatoris has completed second to Luke List in a playoff on the Farmers Insurance Open. He tied for sixth on the Masters, fourth on the Zurich Classic and fifth on the Memorial Tournament.
His world rating has climbed to twelfth and he’s ranked eighth within the FedEx Cup standings. No golfer ranked that top or greater has completed so with out at the least one victory.
Sunday’s end result on the Country Club was Zalatoris’s seventh top-10 end in 12 occasions this 12 months. He has completed within the prime 10 in six of the eight majors wherein he has performed. It is a powerful report — minus a evident gap, or three.
“It’s just little things,” mentioned Zalatoris, who turns 26 in August. “It’s not the same thing at every single one. We’re talking inches. It’s not like I finished runner-up by four or five a few times. It’s been one for all three. So I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing. I’ve got to keep knocking on the door because eventually — like I said earlier, the comfort level is there.”
After Zalatoris had dissected his spherical and his ongoing battle to lastly crack the winner’s circle, he obtained a parting present from the United States Golf Association: a silver medal for coming in second.
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