He said it himself, “it’s about time.” Which, for a young player winning for the first time two days shy of his 26th birthday and in just his second season playing on the PGA Tour, may seem a tad strange; except, in the case of Will Zalatoris, discovering the art of winning was always a matter of when rather than if.
The ‘when’ happened in lifting the FedEx St Jude Championship – in a quite extraordinary sudden-death duel with Sepp Straka. The implications of his breakthrough win were immediate, Zalatoris moving to the top of the FedEx Cup standings as the playoffs enters the stage where only the elite of the elite can eye the big money prize.
Zalatoris – who had three runner-up finishes this season on the PGA Tour, in the Famers Insurance Open, the US Open and the US PGA – heads into this week’s BMW Championship in the Delaware, the second of three FedEx Cup tournaments, as number one in the standings. Only 70 players have advanced to this penultimate event of the PGA Tour season, and only 30 will then move on to next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake.
For the three Irish players in the BMW, there is work to be done. Rory McIlroy, who missed the cut in Memphis, has dropped to ninth in the updated order of merit, while both Shane Lowry and Séamus Power find themselves on the outside looking in and require strong performances in Delaware if they are to make it to East Lake. Power has dropped to 36th in the standings, with Lowry in 37th.
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Zalatoris’s timely win in the St Jude, in his first week of competing with a new caddie, Joel Stock, on his bag, has moved him into pole position to eye the $18 million that awaits the winner of the FedEx Cup after the Tour Championship.
After finally getting his hands on a title, Zalatoris explained how he had used past losses to learn: “I think anytime you put yourself in contention you’re going to learn something about yourself. The first second at the Masters (in 2021) was life changing because it put me in position to play (on the PGA Tour) as much as I wanted to and put me kind of on the map.
“The second at the PGA was kind of affirmation that it wasn’t a fluke of a week, and the third one at the US Open gave me that much more belief that I can win a Major, I can win out here. It was just a matter of time and obviously this was my week.”
And, on moving on to the final two events of the end-of-season playoff schedule, he added: “I’ve always had the attitude of the job’s not done and as great as it is to pull this (win) off, I still feel like I’ve got some unfinished business going forward. It’s obviously very satisfying, but this is the peak season for us obviously, for the PGA Tour players, and the grind continues.”
[ Shane Lowry best of the Irish in first FedEx Cup playoff eventOpens in new window ]
While McIlroy, Power and Lowry head to the BMW Championship in Delaware, for those on the DP World Tour this week’s tour stop is the D+D Real Czech Masters in Prague where there are five Irish players in the field: David Carey and Michael Young, who are playing on sponsor’s invitations, Cormac Sharvin, Paul Dunne and Gavin Moynihan.
On the Challenge Tour, Tom McKibbin, Ruadihri McGee (who was forced out of last week’s tournament after his clubs failed to make it to last week’s tournament in Denmark) and Paul McBride are all in the field for the Dormy Open in Stockholm, Sweden.
Meanwhile, Lowry has joined McIlroy in committing to next month’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which is expected to start the Ryder Cup qualifying for Europe.
“The BMW PGA Championship is a tournament I look forward to playing every year,” said Lowry. “It’s a tournament that is steeped in history and is always one of the highlights of the season. I have come close on a couple of occasions at Wentworth and it’s a tournament I would really love to win.”
