Johnson shoots 66, shares early lead at THE PLAYERS

Matt Hill was a can’t-miss college star at North Carolina State, matching accomplishments that only Tiger Woods had achieved before him. And after Hill’s eight-win season in 2009, he quickly made a deep splash in his native Canada, topping the Order of Merit on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada. But life, like golf, is unpredictable. Sometimes the can’t-miss kids end up missing. Or they run into injuries. Or the game rears its unsympathetic head – no matter your resume. Hill, of Brights Grove, Ontario — the same hometown as Mike Weir – is proof. He will make his first start on the PGA TOUR since 2017 after Monday qualifying for this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship. “I haven’t played a ton of tournaments lately, but you just never know with golf,” Hill said from his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. “You keep plugging along and try to get better and you never know when it’s going to happen.” Hill won the NCAA individual title in 2009, one of his eight collegiate titles that year. He was the ACC’s Male Athlete of the Year (in all sports) and captured the Haskins Award as the year’s best collegiate golfer. He turned professional in 2010 and won his first – and to date, only – professional title on PGA TOUR Canada in 2012. He was the tour’s leading money winner that same season. Since that year, however, Hill has hopped around without finding secure footing. He’s made just five PGA TOUR starts in the past decade and played fewer than 30 times on the Korn Ferry Tour in that span. It certainly hasn’t been for lack of trying, and Hill says he’s happy, despite not quite living up to the expectations that he and others bestowed upon him after college. He’s the father of two girls – the second, Rhemi, was born in July – and has mostly been playing mini-tours in the southeastern United States while trying to earn a spot in Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR events via qualifiers. He played the Evan Scholars Invitational on the Korn Ferry Tour last summer but this week’s event in Bermuda will mark his first start on TOUR since a missed cut at the RBC Canadian Open four years ago. “Obviously I haven’t played out on the PGA TOUR in a while so it’s hard to expect too much,” admits Hill. “But I definitely would love to play well for (my family). It would make it extra special. I could play good golf and they could see me doing it.” Hill has battled a wonky back for most of professional career and not a day goes by when he doesn’t feel some tightness or soreness – amplified a bit, he says, by the long drives between mini-tour events. But he says he’s found ways to manage his back pain now better than ever. He frequently tees it up in South Florida alongside fellow Canadian prs Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Michael Gligic and Adam Svensson. He even lives on Conners’ street, he says. But why have most of those guys, younger and with a lighter college resume than Hill, made it to the TOUR and he hasn’t? “There could have been a few different things. It’s definitely not for lack of putting in the work,” says Hill. “It’s been a long go for me and I haven’t made it out there yet, and I definitely have thought about doing different things. But I love the game and for now I’m just going to keep trying to get better. “As of right now, it’s hard to explain. Guys more in my shoes, it’s up and down. Some weeks – or months – you feel like you’re ready to get a job and other times you feel like your game is really good and you’re ready to get out (on TOUR). It’s a fine line.” Days like the Monday qualifier for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship showed Hill he can still do it. He points to Weir as an example of someone who has shown there isn’t an age limit in this game. Weir has had a career resurgence on PGA TOUR Champions after turning 50. “It shows you I have a lot of time and everyone’s on a different plan, as well,” says Hill. “Looking back isn’t going to do too much for me. I’m just trying to take it week to week right now and make the best of my situation.”

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Sam Burns moved to No. 10 in the world for the first time after repeating at Innisbrook on Sunday.

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Plain and simple, Will Zalatoris is a world-class ball striker. The young and limber 25-year-old currently leads the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. He ranks 18th in driving distance (311.2) and ninth in greens in regulation (74.6%). Zalatoris arrives at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard as the most recent recipient of the Arnold Palmer Award, which is given to the PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. Zalatoris also played his college golf at Palmer’s alma mater, Wake Forest, on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship. Due to the special connection to the founder of this week’s PGA TOUR stop, we thought it was fitting to peek into Zalatoris’ bag and look at two equipment changes that have helped him in 2022. He has a runner-up and sixth-place finish in his three starts this year and ranks 25th in the FedExCup in his first season as a full-fledged PGA TOUR member. For that behind-the-scenes information, GolfWRX spoke with Titleist tour rep J.J. Van Wezenbeeck, who has worked closely with Zalatoris on his equipment dating back to his amateur days. Before hitting the scene on the PGA TOUR last season, Zalatoris used a shorter Titleist TSi3 9-degree driver to gain greater accuracy. Oftentimes, a shorter driver can help golfers hit the center of the face more often. Thanks to recent improvements with his golf swing, though, Zalatoris approached Van Wezenbeeck prior to the 2022 season about lengthening his driver to gain more distance. During the testing process with longer drivers, Van Wezenbeeck and Zalatoris realized they needed to lighten up the shaft weight to ensure that adding length wouldn’t add too much weight to the club. And they needed to adjust loft to lower launch and reduce spin from the increased length and speed. So, when they lengthened his driver to 45.625 inches, they switched from a Fujikura Speeder TR 757 shaft to a Fujikura Speeder TR 661 shaft, which is about 10 grams lighter. They also switched into a TSi3 8-degree head to manage launch and spin better than the 9-degree version. The changes allowed Zalatoris to gain the speed benefits of a longer driver without making it unmanageably heavy or giving up accuracy. For amateur golfers who are also looking to try out longer drivers to gain distance, don’t forget to make proper accommodations to overall weight. Clearly, the driver changes have worked for Zalatoris, and he says he isn’t changing out the driver anytime soon. “He obviously had a ton of success last year with the TSi3 9-degree that he had been using, but we had him in a shorter driver that really allowed him to control his golf ball,” Van Wezenbeeck told GolfWRX. “As he was swinging so much better, he was intrigued by what else was in the tank. “He and I talked (this week) and he’s like, ‘Man, this thing is just not leaving the bag, I’m driving it so great. This is where I’m staying.’” It’s not just the driver switch that’s had a positive impact on Zalatoris’ ball striking, however. He’s also introduced a new club into his iron set that has added both variety and consistency. Zalatoris uses Titleist T100 irons in his 4-9 irons, but he now uses a more forgiving T200 model for his 3-iron. (More on Titleist T-Series irons on GolfWRX.com) The T100 irons, also used by fellow PGA TOUR standout Jordan Spieth, are multi-material cavity back irons that are designed for players who want both precision and forgiveness. The T200 irons, which have a similar look at address to the T100 irons, are engineered to help golfers to create even more height and distance, with a touch more forgiveness, too. That should come in handy this week, as Bay Hill has yielded more approach shots from 200-plus yards than any other course on TOUR since 2016, according to Justin Ray of Twenty First Group. That’s due in large part to Bay Hill’s long par-3s and reachable par-5s. According to Van Wezenbeeck, Zalatoris has struggled in the past to find a 3-iron that launches high enough. The T200 has solved those issues. “When he hit the T200 for the first time, it launched higher, it had a little more ball speed, he could take something off it and he could flight it,” Van Wezenbeeck said. “It just created so many shots in his bag. … The first time I got to work with him was at Riviera (for the 2015 Genesis Invitational) when he was still in college. We had the challenge of trying to make him something that launched over 6 degrees in a 3-iron. He was (hitting) so down on it. He was so fast, but he was so down on it that it was like, ‘How do we get him something that gets up in the air at all?’ “He’s done such an unbelievable job of refining his swing from a really good amateur to a really, really great professional. I’m really impressed with his face control and his ability to put the golf ball where he wants it now. It just shows why he’s become a world-class player.” It’s no wonder why Zalatoris is currently leading the PGA TOUR in two crucial stats; he’s combined swing improvements with equipment adjustments to better suit his game. Zalatoris is geared up for another big run in 2022.

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