TULSA, Okla. — The 17-year-old kid from Texas wanted more than just a trophy that day in Tulsa.
Will Zalatoris won the Trans-Mississippi Championship at Southern Hills in 2014. It was, more or less, by default. Thunderstorms wiped out the final two days of the tournament and Zalatoris, in first before the weather turned, was named victor.
He said, according to the tournament’s website, that he’d have rather kept playing. He “wanted the experience of playing under pressure” with the hope of it one day benefiting him on the PGA Tour.
Zalatoris finally got that experience Sunday on the same course. This time he left without a trophy.
A 25-year-old resident of Dallas, Zalatoris fell to Justin Thomas in a three-hole playoff at the PGA Championship on Sunday at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla. Thomas played his way into overtime after starting the final round seven shots back of leader Mito Pereira, whose double-bogey on the 18th hole set up the two-man playoff.
Zalatoris, still in search of his first PGA Tour victory, rode high-stake waves into a duel with Thomas.
“I fought like crazy today,” he said.
The 36-hole leader after Friday’s second round, Zalatoris began the fourth round three shots back of Pereira. He briefly climbed to re-take a share of the lead early Sunday, with back-to-back birdies on holes four and five, but quickly lost it after Pereira birdied five himself.
Then came the sixth hole. The hole that could have cost Zalatoris any shot at contending.
His tee shot on the 218-yard par three sailed nearly 30 yards past the green and out of bounds. Zalatoris dropped his club on the tee box, slunk his face into his hands and stood motionless for a bit. He was forced to drop from the greenside cart path, but chipped his way back onto the green with a shot that fell eight feet from the pin. He sank the bogey putt, dropped to -7, and felt
“That up-and-down was the best up-and-down I’ve ever had,” Zalatoris said. “So it was from there on, you know, that was a pretty good momentum boost, honestly. Even though it was bogey.”
Zalatoris dropped another shot on seven, but then posted par on his next five holes before a birdie on 13. His putting woes from Saturday — and, the entire PGA Tour season, truthfully — reemerged with a missed six-foot par putt on 16 which landed him two shots back of Pereira, -4 to -6.
He was then left with two holes to play. He was two shots behind. A Major championship — on the course he once demanded high stakes from — was not yet totally out of reach.
Pressure.
“I love it,” Zalatoris said. “If I didn’t like it, I would probably need to find a new career.”
Zalatoris drained an eight-foot birdie putt on 17 to pull himself within a shot of Pereira. An equally-as-clutch eight-foot par putt on 18 elicited fist pumps on the green and kept him tied with Thomas, who birdied 17 to move to -5.
After Pereira, a former Texas Tech golfer, pulled his tee shot on 18 into the water — which set up a double-bogey that dropped him from first to third — Zalatoris prepared for a playoff.
Pressure.
“I think it’s something every kid [dreams about] obviously when they are on the putting green,” Zalatoris said. “The last putt’s to win the Masters, whatever it is, PGA Championship, and that’s what you practice for.
“This is what you live for.”
Both he and Thomas birdied the first of three playoff holes on 13, but a Thomas birdie on 17 proved to be the difference as he took a one-shot lead headed into 18. Zalatoris’ last, best shot was a 42-foot birdie putt which went left.
He settled for par, runner-up and a fifth-straight top-10 finish in a Major. Thomas tapped in for his second PGA Championship victory.
There’d be no trophy this time, though if the PGA Championship had ended like the Trans-Mississippi Amateur did eight years ago — after just two rounds — he’d be holding the Wanamaker Trophy now.
That might have missed the forest for the trees, though.
It wouldn’t have been a pressure moment, that’s for sure.
“When I’m playing with guys [in Dallas], we’re playing money games,” Zalatoris explained. “Of course I want to beat them and I want to get in their pocket, but it’s not about the money. It’s about hitting shots under pressure [so I can] come out here, just to make this a little bit easier.”
Zalatoris, the world’s 30th-ranked player, has seen those he plays those hometown money games with — from Dallas’ Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler — hoist Major championship trophies. So he remained positive Sunday. So much so that he made a guarantee.
“I know I’m going to get one,” Zalatoris said.
He’s seen the pressure now. The trophy comes next.
