Will Zalatoris earns 2020-21 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors

Will Zalatoris was named 2020-21 PGA Tour Rookie of the Yr on Monday after a spectacular first full 12 months that noticed him rise from out of the Korn Ferry Tour on the finish of 2020 to, at one level, an actual prospect to make the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup staff. Zalatoris beat out South African Garrick Higgo for the award, which was voted on by different PGA Tour professionals.

Although he didn’t win a match, Zalatoris nonetheless had a monster season after beginning it with no standing on the PGA Tour. His star energy actually began gathering on the U.S. Open final September, which he obtained in due to his play on the Korn Ferry Tour, the place he had been thriving. His high 10 at Winged Foot on the very starting of the 2020-21 PGA Tour season was a launching pad. He closed out 2020 with two extra high 10s on the PGA Tour and locked up particular short-term membership on the Bermuda Championship in November, which offered him with limitless sponsor exemptions, though no standing as an official member of the Tour (he might solely earn that by profitable a match). 

Zalatoris continued the nice play in 2021 with high 10s on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational, after which he practically gained the Masters. That was his second of three high 10s on the majors this 12 months (he additionally completed high 10 on the PGA Championship), and he added yet one more on the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. 

It has been a meteoric rise — Zalatoris went from No. 672 within the Official World Golf Rankings on the finish of 2019 to No. 59 on the finish of 2020 to inside the highest 30 after this 12 months’s PGA Championship — however not one which was essentially surprising. 

“I do know he is a really assured particular person,” mentioned 2013 PGA Tour Rookie of the Yr, Jordan Spieth earlier this 12 months. “We’ve been taking part in, we performed fairly a little bit of golf in Dallas collectively, truly, all through the weeks. We play lots with … Tony Romo, and we get different professionals within the space and have some actually good video games. So it has been nothing shocking during the last couple years after watching him week-in and week-out at house, and the sport was clearly ok to hold on to any degree of golf. So, excited to see him doing so nicely and I feel that is simply the beginning for him.”

Oddly, Zalatoris was eligible to be a rookie this season however by no means grew to become a full-time member so he was not eligible to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs. His season ended when the PGA Tour common season ended on the Wyndham Championship. To achieve membership, Zalatoris would have needed to win a PGA Tour occasion, which he practically did at Augusta Nationwide (Hideki Matsuyama beat him by one stroke). 

“On behalf of the PGA Tour, my congratulations to Will Zalatoris on being voted the 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Yr by the Tour’s membership,” mentioned PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a press release. “Will’s success regardless of not having PGA Tour membership standing on the outset of the 2020-21 season is a testomony to not solely his capability but in addition his laborious work and angle.”

Zalatoris is formally now a member of the PGA Tour heading into the 2021-22 PGA Tour season and can play his first match on the Fortinet Championship this week in Napa.