Rickie Fowler leads entering Sunday at Waste Management Phoenix Open

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Will Zalatoris, who shot his second 66 to reach 8 under halfway through the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, was tight-lipped when asked about his recent back injury earlier this week. He was fine, he said. As it turns out, Zalatoris – making his first start since getting hurt hitting a shot out of the rough and withdrawing from The Open Championship – is not actually fine. More accurately, he said after his round at TPC Southwind on Friday, he is taking it day by day. In fact, he almost didn’t play this week. “I’ve got a little bit of an issue with my back,” he said. “I took about two weeks for me to finally feel at least somewhat remotely in the same ballpark in terms of range of movement.” If someone had asked him last Saturday whether he was going to play in Memphis, he continued, “I’d have told you 50-50 at best. I played for the first time Sunday and thought I was moving OK. Doc said just listen to your body. It takes a lot for me to not play golf.” Zalatoris was playing well and within shouting distance of the leaders on July 16 when he hurt his lower back gouging a shot out of the rough on the 15th hole at Royal St. George’s. “It felt like I was getting stabbed in the back of my left leg,” he said. “It was not fun. I’ve never had anything happen like that in one golf swing. Part of being 24, maybe a little dumb and a little fearless, I didn’t think I was gonna hurt myself.” He finished the round, but soon announced on social media that he had withdrawn. Although back pain had compelled him to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday earlier this season, he had never felt anything like this. The injury was to a disk in his lower back. “It’s a couple things,” Zalatoris said. “It’s a little structural, a little muscular. The muscular part is easy to take care of, the structural part is a little harder.” Always reluctant to take much time off, he now didn’t have much choice. He went home to Dallas, where he said he nearly drove his fiancé crazy knocking around the house. His only job was not to play golf but to do physical therapy with his trainer, Damon Goddard. It seems to have worked, as his late decision to play this week is paying off. Subsisting on Advil as his only form of pain relief – he says he tried a nerve-blocker and didn’t like it – Zalatoris has made 12 birdies and four bogeys. He hasn’t lost distance, he said, thanks partly to adrenaline. One of the oddities of his situation is that as a Special Temporary Member of the PGA TOUR he is not eligible for the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs. Only a win this week or next would get him in. Barring an eleventh-hour victory to change his status, he is considering playing some events on the European Tour. Alas, that would be a lot of time on an airplane. For now, he said, he’s taking it one day at a time. “It’s a work in progress,” he said. “It’s going to take some time for me to get back to normal.”

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Kevin Streelman … Nothing is as reliable in the long-term like the milkshakes in which the players at Muirfield Village can indulge, but he’s on a similar trajectory. Since 2015, he’s gone T18-T8-T13 at the Memorial. And that’s with rounds of par or worse in each finale that he started inside the top eight on the leaderboard. Three top 10s in his last 10 starts this season and ranks fifth in greens in regulation, T24 in proximity, 23rd in strokes gained: tee-to-green and 14th in scrambling. He’s also resided inside the top four in bogey avoidance for more than four months. Luke List … It’s been four weeks since he placed T9 at Quail Hollow, so don’t forget about this guy. He’s scattered five top 10s this season across varied tracks, including Bay Hill and Harbour Town. That kind of diversification comps to fellow long hitter Tony Finau, but List is still chasing his first PGA TOUR victory. Despite hosting one of the deepest fields every season, Muirfield Village has not discriminated against breakthroughs. From 2014-2016, Hideki Matsuyama, David Lingmerth and William McGirt, respectively, celebrated their first TOUR titles on the course. List is fourth in strokes gained: tee-to-green, 20th in adjusted scoring and T17 in par-5 scoring. Bill Haas … Save a T7 at Harbour Town, he’s struggled in finding a groove all season. While his early scuffling was surprising, it’s been understandable since the fatal crash in which he was a passenger in mid-February. Perhaps a T14 at the Fort Worth Invitational was the turning point. (He’s 130th in the FedExCup standings and not yet fully exempt for next season.) Like his history at Colonial, he’s enjoyed multiple strong showings at Muirfield Village. Since 2013, he’s 4-for-5 with two top 10s and another pair of top 25s. C.T. Pan … It’s been three years since he turned professional, so the newest fans of golf likely aren’t familiar with his pedigree at the University of Washington. For some, noteworthy success on this stage is immediate, but for others, success is realized in a series of checkpoints passed to trigger an upward swing and achieve career consistency. In just his second season with a TOUR card, the diminutive 26-year-old profiles as a horse for courses, but his accuracy on approach can play anywhere. Finished T40 in his debut at Muirfield Village last year and has thrived at Torrey Pines South, another of the bigger ballparks on the schedule where par demands respect. Currently 10th on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation but still without a top 10 on the season, although he has logged five top 25s, including a T20 at Colonial last week where he closed with a season-low-tying 65. Cameron Davis … The 23-year-old Aussie has been on a barnstorming excursion for six months. Upon arrival at his national open in late November, he sat 1,494th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He then prevailed by one over Matt Jones and Jonas Blixt. Cameron Smith finished fourth, Jason Day fifth and Jordan Spieth eighth. Davis then took his emerging talent to Singapore and opened 2018 with a T6. After adding a T7 at the New Zealand Open, he’s been a regular on the Web.com Tour where he started the season with conditional status. A T17 in Mississippi and a T4 in Knoxville preceded victory in Nashville this past Sunday. Now 105th in the OWGR, he was already in the field at Muirfield Village on the strength of his play abroad. In his PGA TOUR debut at the 2015 OHL Classic at Mayakoba, he placed T15.

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