Zalatoris now sits atop the playoff standings after earning 2,000 FedEx Cup points in addition to the $2.7 million first-place prize.
We’ve already taken a deep dive inside Zalatoris’ Winner’s Bag but now we get to open up the champion’s closet and see how Willy Z dressed for success at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
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The second leg of the 2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs is at the Wilmington Country Club for the BMW Championship.
In what amounted to one of the fewest points between Nos. 70 and 71st in FedEx Cup Playoffs history, Wyndham Clark survived and advanced the cut to the top 70 and next week’s BMW Championship.
Clark overcame a rocky finish, playing his final five holes at TPC Southwind in 4 over. He needed to get up and down for par at the last hole to edge Anirban Lahiri for the 70th and final spot into the field at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware, the second of three playoff events.
Clark, who entered the playoffs at No. 79 in the point standings and had jumped to No. 52 going into the final round, shot a final-round 2-over 72 and finished T-28. It was good enough to earn 118 points and finish with 645, three better than Lahiri.
Clark was one of four players who entered the week outside of the top 70 to move inside the top 70 and earn at least one more playoff start – and a chance to qualify for the FedEx Cup finale at the Tour Championship in East Lake.
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘about time’ when it’s your second year on Tour, but about time,” — Zalatoris, who has 3 runner-up finishes this season
When Will Zalatoris opened the FedEx St. Jude Championship with a disappointing 1-over 71, his fiancée, Caitlin Sellers, phoned and innocently asked him, “What are your plans if you don’t make the weekend?”
“She meant that all in good fun,” Zalatoris said on Saturday.
And what did he tell her?
“I told her let’s cross that bridge when we get there,” Zalatoris said.
He did more than stick around for the weekend. After three runner-up finishes, including two at majors and two playoff defeats, Zalatoris was the victor of a sudden-death playoff over Sepp Straka to win his first PGA Tour title and vault into the top spot in the FedEx Cup point standings.
“It’s kind of hard to say ‘about time’ when it’s your second year on Tour, but about time,” Zalatoris said. “Considering all the close finishes that I’ve had this year, to finally pull it off, it means a lot.”
The 25-year-old reigning Tour rookie of the year shot a final-round 4-under 66 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, and became the second player to win his first tournament in the playoffs, joining Camilo Villegas, who did so at the 2008 BMW Championship. Ranked No. 14 in the world entering the week, Zalatoris already had a fruitful season, which included eight top-10s, the most among players without a win. He had threatened to claim his first Tour victory on several occasions, narrowly missing a birdie putt at the last to force a playoff at the U.S. Open and suffered playoff losses at the Farmers Insurance Open and PGA Championship. This time he was on the right side of the playoff ledger, becoming the first player to win a sudden-death playoff with a bogey since Sean O’Hair did so at the 2011 RBC Canadian Open.
Will Zalatoris holds the trophy after winning the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis. (Photo: Christine Tannous/The Commercial Appeal)
First off, Zalatoris made sure he had weekend plans, rebounding with a bogey-free 63, his lowest round on Tour since the second round of the American Express in January. It didn’t take long for Zalatoris to figure out the reason for his sluggish start.
Zalatoris said he didn’t allow his new caddie, Joel Stock, to read the putts on the first day as they learn to get a feel for each other. Stock served as Zalatoris’s sidekick for the first time since Zalatoris and his longtime caddie, Ryan Goble, parted ways in the middle of last week’s Wyndham Championship.
Zalatoris posted a 65 on Saturday to climb within two strokes of the lead. He birdied the first three holes of the final round, including a 15-footer at the third, to take the lead. Zalatoris made a bogey at No. 7 but regained the lead with a birdie at 10. Straka, 29, who snapped a streak of six missed cuts and hadn’t played on the weekend since the Memorial in early June, made birdie at the 12th to tie Zalatoris for the lead at 14 under.
Both Zalatoris, a Wake Forest product, and Straka, a Georgia grad, converted short birdie putts at the par-5 16th to climb to 15 under. Zalatoris boomed a 310-yard drive at 18 into the right fairway bunker, came up short with his approach, pitched to 10 feet and canned the par putt. After being criticized for his unorthodox putting stroke, Zalatoris celebrated his clutch putt by referencing a Steph Curry line, exclaiming, “What are they going to say now?”
“I actually can’t believe I said that,” Zalatoris said, noting he’s a big Golden State Warriors fan and when Curry said that “it kind of related to kind of my journey so far…At least it wasn’t something worse, but yeah.”
Congrats @WillZalatoris 👏🏾 His resilience is a testament to his character and now he's a winner! He's been a rock solid dude through all the noise and I have so much respect for him because of that. Now watch him go! Bravo dude 🏆
Straka missed a 22-foot birdie putt to win in regulation as they tied at 15-under 265.
It was a wild playoff with Straka having to can a 6-foot par putt at 18 after his 24-foot putt for the win raced by at the first extra hole. Returning to 18 again, both players overcame poor tee shots to salvage par. And then it got really zany at the par-3 11th hole. Zalatoris had the honors and his tee shot bounced on the retaining wall multiple times, avoiding the water and settling between the wall and the rough.
Advantage Straka, except his tee shot bounced into the pond fronting the green. Following a drop, his third flew the green and landed in a bunker. After much deliberation, Zalatoris elected to take a drop, too, rather than risk hitting against the rock retaining wall.
“I couldn’t get the club on the ball,” Zalatoris said. “Considering where Sepp was and he had four feet for 5, there’s no reason for me to try that shot and make it bank right into the grass and go back in the water and all of a sudden I’ve lost the golf tournament.”
Zalatoris’s third shot from 94 yards stopped 7 feet from the hole and he lifted his arms to the sky when his putt dropped in.
With the victory, Zalatoris also earned quadruple points and unseated Scottie Scheffler, who missed the cut on Friday and had held the lead since March. But Scheffler remained World No. 1 as Cameron Smith was docked two strokes before the final round got underway for a penalty he committed on the fourth hole during the third round. Instead of trailing by two heading into the final round, Smith’s deficit bumped to four. He shot even-par 70 and finished T-13, six strokes back.
Lucas Glover, who started the week at No. 121 in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, made birdies at 16 and 17 to tie for the lead at 13 under, but bogeyed the last hole to shoot 66 and tie for third. He vaulted to No. 34 in the points standing and was among the top 70 to advance to the second playoff event at next week’s BMW Championship.
But this week belonged to Zalatoris, who won for the first time in his 56th start after many close calls.
“The first second at the Masters was life changing because it put me in position to play out here as much as I wanted to and put me kind of on the map,” Zalatoris said. “The second at the PGA was kind of affirmation that it wasn’t a fluke of a week, and the third one at the U.S. Open gave me that much more belief that I can win a major, I can win out here. It was just a matter of time and obviously this was my week.”
Zalatoris planned to celebrate, but he also was quick to point out that their was more work left to do.
“I think I’ve always had the attitude of the job’s not done and as great as it is to pull this off, I still feel like I’ve got some unfinished business going forward,” he said. “It’s obviously very satisfying, but this is the peak season for us obviously for the PGA Tour players and the grind continues.”
Everything you need to know for the final round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
The first event of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 playoffs is ready to crown a winner at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. The Ron Prichard-design is a par-70 course measuring at 7,243 yards and is hosting the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week.
J.J. Spaun maintained his one-shot lead over Sepp Straka, after the duo each fired rounds of 2-under 68. Spaun is at 13 under and Straka 12 under, but a lot of chasers are close behind, including Cameron Smith at 11 under. Tony Finau, Sam Burns and Matt Fitzpatrick are each at 9 under.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s what you need to know for the final round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. All times listed are ET.
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Everything you need to know for the third round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
The first event of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 playoffs is headed to the weekend at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. The Ron Prichard-design is a par-70 course measuring at 7,243 yards and is hosting the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week.
J.J. Spaun leads the pack at 11 under with two players, Sepp Straka and Troy Merritt, tied for second at 10 under.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s what you need to know for the third round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. All times listed are ET.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Denny McCarthy has already posted an early candidate for shot of the day.
Denny McCarthy has already posted an early candidate for shot of the day during the second round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
His eagle on the sixth hole at TPC Southwind gave him the outright lead (9 unde). McCarthy’s second shot from 153 yards out on the par 4 sailed just past the flagstick and one-hopped back into the hole. McCarthy is the only golfer so far to eagle the sixth hole.
McCarthy is ranked No. 43 in the FedEx Cup standings, and his highest finish this season was tied for fifth at The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.
He was tied for first with Sahith Theegala early Friday morning.
A hole-out eagle to take the lead 💪@_DennyMcCarthy is -5 thru 6 holes today.
Everything you need to know for the second round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship.
The first event of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 playoffs is underway at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. The Ron Prichard-design is a par-70 course measuring at 7,243 yards and is hosting the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week.
Si Woo Kim finished his round in dramatic fashion, holing an iron shot from the 18th fairway for an eagle. The double circle on his scorecard cemented an 8-under 62. With him at the top of the leaderboard is J.J. Spaun who won the Valero Texas Open earlier this season.
From tee times to TV and streaming info, here’s what you need to know for the second round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. All times listed are ET.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Finau has registered victories in his two most recent PGA Tour starts and fired 6-under 64 on Thursday.
It’s a good thing that Tony Finau learned to fire knife dance as a kid.
His golf game has been on a serious heater of late. The 32-year-old Utah native of Tongan descent has registered victories in his two most recent PGA Tour starts. He fired 6-under 64, two strokes off the lead, at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday to continue his blistering run at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
“It started with a lowlight, duck hooked my first tee shot,” said Finau, who trails Si Woo Kim and J.J. Spaun during the first round. “But I got lucky, had a shot, put it on the front of the green and chipped in. It wasn’t the ideal birdie start, but we’re off and running.”
Finau, who entered the week in seventh place in the FedEx Cup standings, recorded his 10th straight round of 68 or lower, becoming just the eighth player since 1995 to do so, and is four rounds away from matching the longest streak during that time frame held by Tiger Woods.
Finau had gone 143 starts and a span of 1,975 days between victories at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and the 2021 Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey. That event was replaced by the St. Jude as the first of three FedEx Cup Playoff events. Technically, Finau is considered the defending champion this week.
“Quite a different place,” he said Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. “It’s definitely strange defending on a golf course that I haven’t won on.”
Finau won the 3M Open and the Rocket Mortgage Classic seven days apart, but credits his win a year ago to kick off the playoffs as his breakthrough.
“Usually the hardest one to win is your first one,” Finau said. “Mine was the Northern Trust because of how much time was in between the two and my own expectations in my mind of what could be and all the close calls I had. So, to overcome that hurdle was huge and I think it’s kind of proven that over this last month.”
Finau skipped last week’s tournament, the Wyndham Championship. He hosted his charity fundraiser and celebrated with his family, including a birthday party for his daughter at a pool, where he was caught on video accidentally dropping his wife’s cell phone in the water while dancing. The phone survived, and it led to Finau rehashing the story of his days as a Polynesian dancer.
“My mom had a luau, a traveling luau, so that’s why I had to learn how to do the fire knife dance,” he explained. “I’m not shy to dance and entertain just because I’ve been doing that since I was young and things.”
Finau also made sure he kept his game sharp by playing at home every day.
“I know how big these three weeks are,” he said.
Kim, who shot 28 on the back nine, the lowest nine-hole score of his career, and Spaun, who won the Valero Texas Open in April, shot matching 62s to share the lead.
J.J. Spaun and his caddie line up a putt during the first round of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo: David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports)
Scoring was low due to heavy rain earlier this week that saturated the course, which led to a decision to play preferred lies in the fairways during the opening round. Thirteen players shot 65 or better in the morning wave, but one notable player who struggled was World No. 1 and FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler. He was 4 over after five holes on his way to shooting 1-over 71.
One of the more pleasant surprises of the opening round was the play of Rickie Fowler, who snuck into the playoffs as the last man in the field of 125.
Despite ending his partnership with longtime caddie Joe Skovron this week, Fowler made an eagle and five birdies and shot 65 with a new putter in the bag too. Fowler’s lost touch on the green has been the biggest contributor to his slump and remains a mystery. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: putting during the 2016-17 season, but has plummeted to No. 179 this season, the worst performance of his career. On Tuesday, one of his former college teammates at Oklahoma State who works as an equipment rep for puttermaker Scotty Cameron, showed off a new Newport 2 Plus model on the practice-putting green.
“Hit a couple putts with it, everything looked good, felt good. Messed with it a little bit more yesterday and decided to give it a shot,” Fowler said. “There was a lot of good out there today.”
Fowler will need a lot more where that came from the next three days to simply advance to the next playoff event, which admits the top 70 in the FedEx Cup point standings after this week, and to keep up with Finau, the Tour’s resident dancing fool.
The Rules of Golf are extensive and can be pretty confusing at times. On top of the rules, there’s golf etiquette, which can also be weird, but is common sense for the most part. Especially among professionals.
For instance, when your playing partner or opponent is reading a putt on the green, you walk around them. And if you do accidentally walk in front of someone while they’re lining up a putt, there’s an immediate apology, right?
The same situation played out between the top two players in the world during the first round of the PGA Tour’s 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, at TPC Southwind on Thursday. Except there wasn’t an apology, just a weird look that made it seem intentional (or maybe he just wasn’t paying attention).
Let’s have a little fun and think about this for a second: if it was intentional, why would Scheffler do something so petty?
Reports broke earlier this week that Smith would be one of the next players to leave the PGA Tour for the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series. When the 28-year-old Australian, winner of this year’s Players Championship and British Open, was asked about the report, he had “no comment.”
Maybe Scheffler’s walk-through was the start of the petty wars between Tour and LIV players. Or maybe it was just one of those socially awkward moments that the PGA Tour Live crew and a Twitter user just happened to catch on camera. After all, Scheffler did high-five Smith after his hole-out from the fairway earlier in the round.
Only time will tell, but either way it was weird.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
