TULSA, Okla. – Come Sunday, the hefty, silver Wanamaker Trophy will be hoisted by Will Zalatoris.
Yes, 36 holes remain in the 104th PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. Yes, the skinny youngster from the Lone Star State hasn’t won on the PGA Tour. And yes, there’s some serious firepower in pursuit.
But history is on the side of Zalatoris. Of the seven major championships played at Southern Hills, all were won by a player who led or co-led the tournament through 36 holes. And Zalatoris is atop the leaderboard.
Following an opening-round 66, Zalatoris came home with a bogey-free, 5-under 65 Friday to move to 9 under at the halfway point. He is one shot clear of Chile’s Mito Pereira, who also is looking for his first PGA Tour title. He is playing in just his second major. Pereira, who grew up playing with Joaquin Niemann, added a 64 in the second round to his 68 in the first.
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“I got away with murder a few times today for sure, especially starting off the day hitting the left trees and hitting it to a kick-in,” Zalatoris said. “Same thing on 17, being able to get out of there with birdie where it was looking like I was going to be making 5.
“I just kept the round going today. Made a bunch of six-, eight-footers for par, and obviously being bogey free around this place is pretty nice.”
Four-time Wanamaker Trophy winner and 15-time major champion Tiger Woods grinded his way to the weekend. Playing in just his second PGA Tour event in 18 months, and 15 months after a horrific, single-car accident nearly cost him his life, Woods birdied two of his final six holes to move from one shot outside the cutline to one shot below. His rounds of 74-69 left him at 3 over.
“Well, you can’t win the tournament if you miss the cut,” Woods said. “There’s a reason why you fight hard and you’re able to give yourself a chance on the weekend. You just never know when you might get hot.
“This weekend I’m going to have to go low. It’s going to be different. The wind is going to be coming out of the north. It’s going to be cooler.”
After a quick turnaround, Justin Thomas made quick work of his second round. The 2017 PGA champion, who was on the late-early side of matters this week, birdied both his first and last holes in the second round, just as he did in the first round, and shot his second consecutive 3-under-par 67 to move to 6 under.
“Although I played solid yesterday, I played really, really well today,” said Thomas, who is looking for his first win since the 2021 Players Championship. “I feel like I’m playing well. We’re halfway through so it’s still a long way from home, but I’m very, very pleased with where everything is at and the frame of mind and state of mind that I’m in.”
Four shots back after a 63 was two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson. Overnight leader and two-time Wanamaker winner Rory McIlroy battled throughout the second round, especially on the greens, and shot 71 to be five back. He was joined at 4 under by Abraham Ancer and Davis Riley.
Zalatoris has been knocking on the winner’s door for some time. He lost in a playoff earlier this year in the Farmers Insurance Open and has four top 10s in his last six starts in majors, including being runner-up in the 2021 Masters.
“They’re tough golf courses that allows my ball-striking to really give me the best chances,” Zalatoris said of major venues. “Obviously these greens aren’t easy, but hitting them on the right tiers and being able to have the 15- to 25-footers where I’m not going up and down slopes is huge.
“I’ve kind of had an attitude with the majors, especially since the Masters, where I wanted to enjoy the experience as much as I could. Looking back 20 years from now I don’t want to regret my attitude or anything like that.
“I just make sure that after really every single shot I hit, I don’t want to say life or death, but make sure I’m fully committed to everything that I do because we only get four of them a year.”
And Zalatoris knows about the 36-hole history of majors, here.
“I’ve got a long 36 holes ahead of me,” he said. “I think if anything, like I said, you’re able to plot your way around this golf course, and if you hit as many greens as you possibly can, it’s kind of hard to mess it up.
“You still can. You know, if you get on the wrong slopes it still has a little bit of the attitude of like Augusta where you can hit 18 greens and walk off that place and shoot 80. I think history to me, it is what it is, but I’m going to go out and do my job, and hopefully it’s enough at the end.”
Pereira quit the game as a teenager for two years but couldn’t stay away. He rode a hot putter and has made just one bogey in his last 24 holes.
“When I came back I just I knew I could do it, I knew I could get to here, and I just kept the confidence,” he said. “And obviously there were some up and downs but really happy to be here.
“I’ve been hitting the ball really well, so if I can just put one day of good putting, something like this comes up. So just really happy how I ended up playing today.”
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