Will Zalatoris Bio
William Patrick Zalatoris (born August 16, 1996) is an American professional golfer who plays primarily on the PGA Tour. He earned his first PGA Tour victory at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship and has built a reputation as one of the tour’s sharpest ballstrikers. Across his career so far, Zalatoris has recorded three runner-up finishes in major championships, including the 2021 Masters Tournament, the 2022 PGA Championship, and the 2022 U.S. Open. He was also recognized as the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2020–21 season.
Early Life and Background
Zalatoris was born in San Francisco, California, on August 16, 1996, to Catherine and Richard Zalatoris, and he grew up as an only child. Both parents worked in real estate, and his mother, Catherine, had been a middle-distance track and field athlete at the University of Oregon. The family lived in the San Francisco Bay Area before relocating to Texas when Will was nine years old, and he later grew up around Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas.
Golf entered his life almost from birth. His parents were recreational golfers, and his mother continued playing while pregnant with him until just three weeks before he was born. He received his first plastic golf club at 18 months old and learned the game at Mariners Point Golf Center in Foster City, California. At California Golf Club, he played alongside his father and, at age six, met 1964 U.S. Open champion Ken Venturi, who gave him early advice on his grip.
After moving to Texas, Zalatoris attended Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, where he was a four-year letterman. In the summer of 2014, he won the Texas Amateur Championship, the Trans-Mississippi Amateur, and the U.S. Junior Amateur, defeating Davis Riley 5 and 3 in the final. He was later awarded the Arnold Palmer Scholarship by Jerry Haas to play for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Wake Forest University, where he majored in psychology.
Path to Professional Golf
Zalatoris enjoyed a decorated amateur and collegiate career. At Wake Forest he won his first individual title at the 2014 Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate and added the 2015 Rod Myers Invitational, the 2016 Trans-Mississippi Amateur, and the 2016 Pacific Coast Amateur. As a junior in 2017, he was named ACC Player of the Year, a First-Team GCAA All-American, a Golfweek First-Team All-American, a Ben Hogan Award semifinalist, and a Jack Nicklaus Award finalist. He also represented the United States at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Cup and the 2017 Walker Cup alongside Collin Morikawa.
His collegiate scoring average of 70.44 broke the Wake Forest record of 70.87 set by Bill Haas. Despite being scheduled to graduate in 2018, Zalatoris chose in December 2017 to leave school a semester early and turn professional at the start of 2018. He has been a professional golfer since that decision.
Will Zalatoris Career
Early Career (2018–2020)
Zalatoris made six PGA Tour starts in 2018, making only one cut, and failed to advance past the first stage of Web.com Tour qualifying school. In 2019, he relied on Monday qualifiers and sponsor exemptions on what was then the Web.com Tour, later renamed the Korn Ferry Tour. A third-place finish at the LECOM Health Challenge in July secured him membership for the rest of the season, and he finished the regular season 60th in points to earn full Korn Ferry status for 2020.
His first professional victory came in July 2020 at the TPC Colorado Championship, which he won by one stroke. The win was part of a run of 11 consecutive top-20 finishes on the Korn Ferry Tour and moved him to the top of the tour’s points list, qualifying him for the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club. At Winged Foot, he aced the par-3 seventh hole in the first round and finished tied for sixth alongside world number one Dustin Johnson, his first top-10 finish in a major championship. A T8 at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship and a T5 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open followed, and a T16 at the Bermuda Championship earned him Special Temporary Member status on the PGA Tour.
Major Championship Contention and First PGA Tour Victory (2021–2022)
Zalatoris opened 2021 with top-15 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open, the Genesis Invitational, and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which moved him into the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking and into the 2021 Masters Tournament. After rounds of 70-68-71, he entered the final round tied for second and shot a 2-under 70 to finish solo-second, one stroke behind winner Hideki Matsuyama. He added a T8 at the 2021 PGA Championship in May and was later voted PGA Tour Rookie of the Year for the 2020–21 season, the first special temporary member to win the award since Charles Howell III in 2001.
In January 2022, Zalatoris tied for the lead at the Farmers Insurance Open after 72 holes alongside Luke List and lost in a sudden-death playoff. He went on to finish tied for sixth at the 2022 Masters Tournament, then recorded the second major runner-up finish of his career at the 2022 PGA Championship, where he lost to Justin Thomas in a three-hole aggregate playoff at Southern Hills Country Club. The following month at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club, he tied with Scottie Scheffler at 5-under, one stroke behind winner Matt Fitzpatrick, for his third major runner-up finish.
PGA Tour Breakthrough (2022)
In August 2022, Zalatoris won his first PGA Tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the opening event of the 2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs. He defeated Sepp Straka in a playoff, and the victory moved him to first in the FedEx Cup standings. His next start at the BMW Championship ended in a withdrawal because of a back injury, and he also withdrew from the Tour Championship the following week, when he was seeded third. The injury was later diagnosed as two herniated discs, which Zalatoris traced back to an awkward shot from thick fescue at the 2021 Open Championship.
Back Surgeries and Return (2023–2025)
Zalatoris returned from his disc herniation in January 2023 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, finishing tied for 11th, and posted a fourth-place finish at the Genesis Invitational the following month. Shortly before the 2023 Masters Tournament, he withdrew after feeling symptoms travel down his legs while warming up. He later announced he had undergone a successful microdiscectomy to address herniated discs and would miss the remainder of the 2022–23 season. He was unable to swing a golf club for five months.
He returned in January 2024 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, missing the cut, and finished runner-up at the Genesis Invitational the next month, his first time in contention since the surgery. He added a T9 at the 2024 Masters Tournament in April but did not record another top-10 finish for the rest of the year. In May 2025, Zalatoris underwent a second back surgery after an MRI following the 2025 PGA Championship showed he had re-herniated two discs. He returned to competition in December 2025 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, a no-cut event in South Africa, and finished 15th.
Driving Style and Strengths
Zalatoris has long been regarded as one of the best ballstrikers on the PGA Tour, with a powerful and accurate long game that has been central to his rise. After his first back surgery, he and his coaches worked to rework his swing to address the excessive sidebend that had strained his back, and his coach Troy Denton has described his condition in 2024 as, in layman’s terms, “an old man’s back.”
Notable Events and Milestones
His career is defined by three major championship runner-up finishes at the 2021 Masters Tournament, the 2022 PGA Championship, and the 2022 U.S. Open, along with his first PGA Tour victory at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. Other signature moments include a hole-in-one at the par-3 seventh at Winged Foot during the 2020 U.S. Open and a career-low 11-under 61 at the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship.
Will Zalatoris Career Wins
Zalatoris has accumulated two verified professional wins across his career to date, one on the Korn Ferry Tour and one on the PGA Tour. His PGA Tour breakthrough came at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, while his first professional title came in 2020 on what was then the Korn Ferry Tour.
PGA Tour Highlights
Zalatoris’s lone PGA Tour victory came at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, where he defeated Sepp Straka in a playoff to claim the title. The win moved him to first in the FedEx Cup standings. He has also shown a knack for contending in the game’s biggest events, with three runner-up finishes in major championships and a runner-up result at the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open after losing a sudden-death playoff to Luke List.
Korn Ferry Tour Highlights
Zalatoris’s first professional win came at the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, which he captured by one stroke. The victory was part of a longer stretch of 11 consecutive top-20 finishes that pushed him atop the tour’s points list and ultimately earned him Special Temporary Member status on the PGA Tour.
Will Zalatoris Family
Family Background and Golf Lineage
Zalatoris was raised by Catherine and Richard Zalatoris as an only child, and his parents both worked in real estate. His mother, Catherine, was a middle-distance track and field athlete at the University of Oregon, and both parents were recreational golfers who introduced him to the game at a young age. At Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas, he often competed against fellow Dallas-area juniors Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler.
Personal Life
Zalatoris met his wife, Caitlin Sellers, while attending Wake Forest University. The two became engaged in 2021 and married in 2022, and they make their home in Dallas, Texas. He has also remained close with former NFL quarterback Tony Romo; both are members of Maridoe Golf Club outside Dallas and regularly play together, with Zalatoris saying in 2021 that Romo has “been a big brother to me.” During his recovery from his 2023 back surgery, Zalatoris returned to Wake Forest to complete his psychology degree, finishing the elective courses he had left behind when he turned professional in late 2017.
2025 Season Performance
Zalatoris entered 2025 working his way back from the back surgery that had ended his 2022–23 season and limited his play in 2024. He played a reduced early-season schedule as he continued refining the swing changes introduced with his coach Troy Denton after his first microdiscectomy. The 2025 PGA Championship proved to be a turning point, as an MRI taken around the event revealed that he had re-herniated two discs.
Following the diagnosis, Zalatoris underwent a second back surgery in May 2025, citing “discomfort and instability in his back that progressively got worse” through the year. At the time of the procedure, he was ranked 84th in the Official World Golf Ranking and had missed the cut in each of his last four major championship starts. His outlook for the remainder of 2025 centered on rehabilitation rather than competition.
He returned to the course in December 2025 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, a no-cut event in South Africa, and finished 15th. The appearance marked his first competitive start since the second surgery and offered a cautious step forward as he looked to put a difficult year behind him and build toward a healthier 2026 campaign.