Rory McIlroy leads Brooks Koepka by one at WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Experience is supposed to be a requisite for Masters contenders, but Will Zalatoris is showing that skill trumps seasoning every time. Even in the firm conditions that reward those who’ve memorized every nook and cranny of Alister Mackenzie’s design, the 24-year-old – one of just three professionals making their Masters debut this week – finds himself in contention. Birdies on his final three holes Friday gave Zalatoris a 4-under 68 and a spot in Saturday’s final group. He’ll start the third round two shots behind Justin Rose, who followed Thursday’s incredible 65 with an even-par 72. History weighs heavy at Augusta National, the only venue that hosts a major championship on an annual basis. It can be suffocating for someone setting foot on the property for the first time but Zalatoris’ nerves have been drowned out by the gratitude he feels to be competing in the Masters just months after playing on the Korn Ferry Tour. “I wanted to be here my entire life,” he said. “Some people shy away from that, but I’m excited to be here. … There’s no reason to feel intimidated now. I made it to here.” He took a non-traditional route. Zalatoris didn’t even have a PGA TOUR card at the start of the season. His pro career got off to a rough start when he failed to advance out of the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School in his first attempt. It was an unexpected obstacle for Zalatoris, who’s been elite since junior golf. He followed in the footsteps of Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler as U.S. Junior champions from Dallas. He was teammates on the 2017 Walker Cup with Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ and Scheffler. But two years ago this week, he was ranked 1,514th in the world. He was happy just to Monday qualify for a Korn Ferry Tour event in Panama. Even a year ago, he was still hovering around 500th in the ranking. He’s been on a rapid rise ever since the Korn Ferry Tour resumed after its COVID-induced hiatus, amassing a record-tying 11 consecutive top-20 finishes on that circuit. His success on the Korn Ferry Tour earned him a spot in last year’s U.S. Open. He hasn’t been back since. A T6 finish at Winged Foot not only allowed a larger audience to observe his impeccable iron play but confirmed to Zalatoris that he could compete on the highest level. “At the U.S. Open, he told me that on the third hole is when he realized that it was just like another a tournament,” said swing coach Troy Denton. “You could tell at the beginning of this week, he had a swagger. He just believes.” Scott Fawcett, creator of the course-management system known as DECADE, has known Zalatoris since he was a teenager. “I’ve played with tons of great players and Fred Couples, when he was No. 1 in the world is the only one I’ve played with that hits it as solid as Will,” Fawcett said. “He has hit it like a top-30 ball-striker since he was a kid.” Zalatoris led the field at Winged Foot in Strokes Gained: Approach and ranks fifth in that category this season. He made a hole-in-one in the U.S. Open’s opening round and hit his tee shot on another par-3 off of a flagstick. His accurate iron play is on display again this week. Augusta National is known as a “second-shot golf course” because of the importance of placing the ball on the correction portion of the sloping putting surfaces. The spindly Zalatoris is capable of launching high approach shots that land softly on those small sections. He birdied his final three holes Friday thanks to iron shots that landed close to hole locations placed atop small plateaus. He hit his tee shot on the par-3 16th just 10 feet from the back-righ pin. His second shot to 17 was 11 feet from the hole. And then he hit a 50-degree wedge to 4 feet from the hole on 18. That final approach was the most satisfying of the day because he knew a birdie would get him into Saturday’s final group. “It’s a childhood dream to obviously be in the final group of a major on a weekend, especially here,” said Zalatoris. He was 8 years old when he attended the 2005 Masters, watching Tiger Woods hole a 40-foot birdie putt. Later that week, he was sitting with his family in their favorite Italian restaurant when Woods holed his famous chip on No. 16. The place exploded when the ball dropped, illustrating to a young Zalatoris just how important this tournament is. He grew up alongside Spieth, who finished second in his Masters debut seven years ago, and the sons of former PGA Championship winner Lanny Wadkins. He still remembers the bits of wisdom that Wadkins shared years ago, well before he was playing professional golf. “There’s little things he may not even remember telling me, how the wind affects a shot if it’s into the wind or downwind on 12,” Zalatoris said. “I think he told me that when I was 14, and I still remember it.” Now just 24, Zalatoris is proving to be a fast learner.

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PGA TOUR member Morgan Hoffmann was awarded the PGA TOUR Courage Award by PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan on Monday, August 16 as part of the Morgan Hoffman Foundation Celebrity Pro-Am event at Arcola Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. The two-day event hosted PGA TOUR members and celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment to help raise awareness and funds for the Morgan Hoffmann Foundation. PGA TOUR members that took part included Matthew Wolff, Charley Hoffman, Chez Reavie, Daniel Berger, Max Homa, Luke List, Harry Higgs, Cameron Tringale, Adam Hadwin and Sam Ryder. Hoffmann, after a promising start to his PGA TOUR career, was diagnosed in 2016 at the age of 27 with Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD). Soon after going public with his condition, Hoffmann and his fiancé Chelsea (now wife) launched the Morgan Hoffmann Foundation in 2017. Since then, Hoffmann has made it his goal to find a cure and become a role model for those affected by muscular dystrophy and similar neuromuscular diseases. The PGA TOUR Courage Award is presented to a player who, through courage and perseverance, has overcome extraordinary adversity, such as personal tragedy or debilitating injury or illness, to make a significant and meaningful contribution to the game of golf. Introduced in 2012, Hoffmann is the fourth recipient of the PGA TOUR Courage Award, joining Erik Compton (2013), Jarrod Lyle (2015) and Gene Sauers (2017).

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LAS VEGAS - Francesco Molinari is hoping his first round on the PGA TOUR in nearly seven months goes a little smoother than his first interview. RELATED: Featured Groups for Las Vegas | DeChambeau turns doubters into believers Molinari will make his long awaited return to golf at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas this week, his first hit out since THE PLAYERS Championship was cancelled after one round in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The three-time TOUR winner is the last of the major players around the world to return to competitive golf and when he fronted the TOUR's virtual interview room the Italian caught a proverbial frog in his throat right from the opening question. Thankfully it was nothing a quick drink of water and reset couldn't fix. While the 37-year-old's concern for the global health crisis was a factor in his absence, the main reason the Italian has been off the golf grid so long is a cross Atlantic move from London to Los Angeles. Molinari and his wife and two children have made a permanent shift and the former Open Champion insisted he be a dedicated part of the monumental move. "Obviously feels great after such a long layoff to be back. I didn’t think at THE PLAYERS that it will be so long to get back. I’m just very happy to be here," he said. "I just decided to take some time off to work out a few things with the family. Obviously we moved over here to California during this time, so, yeah, it’s been different. Not something I thought I would do in my career, but in a way it was nice to take a break and stay away for a bit. I definitely feel refreshed and looking forward to being back playing golf." The Molinari's first moved to San Francisco in July and were in fact in the city during the PGA Championship but Molinari declined to play as they continued to try to lockdown a new residence. While Collin Morikawa was making history, Molinari and his kids were at the zoo. Since then they've found a place to call home in Southern California. "It’s worth a shot. I want to try and achieve as many things as possible in let’s say the second part of my career," Molinari said of the motivations for the move which will allow him to play more on the PGA TOUR while still being close to his loved ones. "My wife is supportive of that, and obviously she’s probably the one I guess in the toughest spot because she’s even further away from her family and friends. I’m going to try to make the most of it obviously, and hopefully we can settle in California and be there for a long time." At the end of the 2018 FedExCup season Molinari sat fifth in the world rankings and went on to become the first European to produce a 5-0 record in a Ryder Cup as Europe beat the U.S. in Paris. He'd claimed the Quicken Loans National as well as the Claret Jug at Carnoustie that summer. In 2019 Molinari took out the Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard and was third at the World Golf Championships - Dell Technologies Match Play sending him to the Masters as one of the hot favorites. For three and a half days he played like it before a mistake on Sunday paved the way for a Tiger Woods win and the end of the golden run Molinari had been on. A double bogey on the par-3 12th on Sunday stripped him of a two-shot lead and he ended up tied fifth. Not a single top-10 has followed and when the break was enforced he had dropped to 28th in the world. Now he's fallen to 73rd thanks to the lengthy layoff but returns to a course in TPC Summerlin where he finished T4 in the 2016-17 season. He expects to get closer to his peak performance by January 2021. "My expectations for this week, to be honest, are quite low. I haven’t played that much golf really in the last few months, so we’ll see what happens here," Molinari said cautiously. "I’ve been playing probably as little golf as ever in my life ... Mentally I’m definitely in a very different spot than I was in February or March. I wasn’t in a great place with my game back then and I was low in confidence … but it was probably in a way a good time for me to take a step away from the game. "I’m more motivated now than I was back then before the break. I'm nowhere near where I want to be long-term physically and technically and mentally, but there is time. There is no rush. It’s going to be a long process. It’s going to be kind of a grind to get back. I know it’s not going to be that easy. But I’m ready for the challenge.”

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