If you spent the weekend watching The Masters, you probably now know the name Will Zalatoris. With his success in climbing the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) recently, more and more are starting to know his name. For Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, Texas, though, Zalatoris has been a star for a long time.
Originally from the Bay Area in California, The Masters' second-place finisher moved to Texas as a young boy where he found his love of golf. After his parents became members at the Bent Tree Country Club, Zalatoris would play golf with a group of other kids every day. Soon, Zalatoris would quit all other sports knowing he wanted to become a pro golfer, reports Golf Digest. While playing junior golf, Zalatoris played against the likes of Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler. Zalatoris says he still gets together with the duo and plays casual rounds to this day.
Before the 24-year old rocketed from number 2,006 in the OWGR to number 27, Zalatoris was a Trojan at Trinity Christian Academy. Zalatoris was a four-year letterman and led the Trojans to the TAPPS State Championships in 2011 and 2013. In 2012 and 2013, Zalatoris was the individual state champion. Throughout all four years of high school, the talented golfer earned all-state, all-region, and all-conference honors as well as State All-Academic team honors in 2013 and 2014. Zalatoris also posted an amazing junior career where he won the Texas State Amateur Championship in 2014 as well as the 2014 US Junior Amateur. In 2013, Zalatoris won the Antigua National High School Tournament and finished. In all four of his appearances at the Antigua National High School Tournament, Zalatoris finished in the top six.
After a successful juniors and high school career, Zalatoris went on to play golf for Wake Forest on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship where he earned ACC Player of the Year during his junior season (2016-2017). Zalatoris made quite the name for himself at Wake Forest where he was the individual champion at the General Hackler Championship (2016-17) and the Rod Myers Invitational (2015-16). He was also selected to the U.S. Walker Cup team in the summer of 2017 with the likes of Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler, and Maverick McNealy. That year, they defeated Great Britain and Iron at Los Angeles Country Club. Midway through his senior season with the Demon Deacons, Zalatoris turned pro. Zalatoris earned a psychology degree from Wake Forest in 2018.
Apart from finishing second at the Masters in the 2020-21 golf season, Zalatoris has finished top five in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, top six in the U.S. Open, top seven in the Farmers Insurance Open, and top-10 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In 2020, he won the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship during the Korn Ferry Tour over fellow American Chase Johnson.
Zalatoris made his debut at the Masters one to remember as he finished nine under par, just behind Hideki Matsuyama who finished 10 under par. Zalatoris performed the best out of any player in their debut since 1982 when Dan Pohl lost in a playoff with Craig Stadler.