TULSA, Okla — How did Will Zalatoris perform Thursday? Just ask his playing partner.
“It was fun to watch,” Viktor Hovland said.
The 25-year-old Dallas resident shot a 4-under 66 in round one of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills and entered the clubhouse tied for second place with TCU graduate Tom Hoge. Both trail two-time PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy by one stroke.
The fun that Hovland — who shot an even-par 70 — referenced came largely on the green. Zalatoris led the field in strokes gained putting in round one, and made four birdie putts of 20 feet or longer.
Zalatoris started his round on the back nine and opened his day with an eight-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole. It only got longer from there.
He drained birdie putts of 23, 26, 24 and 30 feet on holes 12, 13, 7 and 9, respectively. An impressive par save on eight (in which he got up-and-down from 70 feet past the pin and in the greenside rough) was sandwiched in between two birdies to close day one.
“It’s super fun whenever you have days like that,” Zalatoris said. “I think I either made four or five 25-footers. It was kind of a bizarre day. I didn’t drive it great early and then drove it nicely at the end, but I think all six of my birdies came from the rough today, which is just very bizarre.”
It was a stark turnaround from his performance last weekend at the AT&T Byron Nelson in McKinney. He finished second-to-last in strokes gained putting, missed the cut by one shot and had to “dig it out of the dirt” with coach Josh Gregory over the weekend.
“The beauty of it is it’s just never as far off as you feel,” he said. “Obviously even in prep the last few days, I was pretty frustrated still, and it just kind of clicked last night. Better late than never.”
Better late than never, and just in time for the type of event which the world’s 30th-ranked golfer has often found success at early in his professional career.
In his six prior Major championship starts, Zalatoris finished within the top 10 more often than not. He missed the cut at the 2018 U.S. Open — his first Major tournament — but tied for sixth his next time around in 2020. He finished second at the 2021 Masters, tied for eighth at last year’s PGA Championship and tied for sixth at this year’s Masters. He withdrew from last year’s British Open after a first-round injury, and missed the cut at last year’s U.S. Open.
Four top 10s to just two cuts isn’t half bad for someone still chasing their first win on the PGA Tour. And through 18 early holes at Southern Hills, Zalatoris finds himself in contention once again.
“I think it’s the attitude of, ‘This is what I’ve wanted to achieve basically since I was a little kid,’ ” he said. “And it’s kind of freeing in a way.
“My general attitude is you get four of these a year, they’re special, and I don’t want to leave anything to chance.”
Spieth struggles in round one
While Zalatoris excelled on the green Friday, Jordan Spieth did not.
Spieth shot a 2-over 72 with four bogeys and two birdies. He missed four par putts — all within 12 feet — including a muffed six-footer on the sixth hole that dropped him to 3-over par, his highest score of the day. He finished sixth in strokes gained off the tee, but 135th in strokes gained putting.
On the heels of a win at the RBC Heritage and a second-place finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson, Spieth will need to clean things up Friday to secure a chance to contend for the career grand slam over the weekend.
“If you just told me I was going to win one tournament the rest of my life,” Spieth said Wednesday. “I’d say I want to win this one.”
