Amateur Zalatoris, 18, relishes first shot with pros

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- Will Zalatoris is having a really good week.

The 18-year-old Wake Forest freshman, a mostly unknown golfer who was buried at No. 3,300 in the World Amateur Golf rankings less than a year ago, shot an impressive 4-under 67 at the Northern Trust Collegiate Showcase on Monday. That earned him an exemption over 13 other college golfers into the field at the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open.

He took to the links early Thursday morning for the tournament's opening round alongside Alex Prugh and Carlos Sainz Jr., charging right out of the gate with a birdie on the first hole. Zalatoris went on to shoot a 5-over 76, but you'd never know he struggled at times based on the wide grin plastered across his face after the round.

"It wasn't my best day for sure, to put it mildly; I didn't hit it very well," he said. "But there are just tiny changes to make, no big deal. I'll be ready for (Friday)."

It's that easy confidence, that natural swagger seemingly born inside the talented young athlete, now the world's No. 8-ranked amateur, that had people stopping to watch him on the greens all day at Riviera Country Club. While the gallery discussed his pro potential and marveled over his powerful drives, Zalatoris appeared unfazed by any pressures associated with the spotlight.

"I really just relish the opportunity to be here," he said. "I want to keep an open mind and keep on learning. As an 18-year old kid, I've got a lot of time to work (on things) and I can see how my game stacks up against these guys. Today was just really fun."

Fun was what originally drove Zalatoris to golf in the first place. His uncle Paul, who flew from Chicago to Los Angeles to watch his nephew compete in the Trust, said there was no pushing Zalatoris to get involved in the sport. It came, like most everything else, naturally to him.

"Will started (with golf) when he was two years old," Paul said. "(His family) lived in San Francisco and my brother belonged to a club he would bring Will to. Will would take the clubs in the sand trap and just play around with them. He grew up that way, it wasn't forced on him at all. He chose to stay with it."

Zalatoris, who graduated from Trinity Christian Academy in Texas in 2014, won both the Champions Invitational and the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship that same year, before enrolling as an economics major at Wake Forest. And while some would say the Demon Deacons don't have the cache of other golf programs such as Southern California or Stanford, Zalatoris is quick to drop some big names that drew him to become a part of the school's pedigree.

"Wake has a really rich golf tradition," he said. "We've had Webb (Simpson), and Bill (Haas) in recent years and we've had Arnold Palmer. We've had a whole bunch of really good players but we haven't won a national title since (1986). That's really the difference. We're really young right now, but we're only going to get better, especially with the freshman class we have coming in. It's going to be really fun the next few years."

But before he gets to that, Zalatoris is focused on fine-tuning his game ahead of Friday's second-round action. Despite his uneven play on Thursday, Zalatoris thinks he has a handle on what it's going to take to compete against the best golfers in the world. And it all starts inside him.

"Guys at this level, they just don't make mental mistakes," he said. "You don't see a lot of dumb decisions. I don't see anything mentally holding me back, though. If anything it was just bad habits creeping in. I started hitting some blocks towards the end today which is a bad habit of mine, so I want to fix that. I'll do a little work on the (driving) range and grind out (those problems) and hopefully make the cut."

Then there's that grin again, as if to say even if he doesn't get to play past Friday, this is all still a decent excuse to miss a few Econ classes. Zalatoris has received plenty of well-wishes, too, citing Jim Furyk's advice as among the best he got ahead of the tournament.

"A lot of really nice guys have reached out and given me support," Zalatoris said. "But Jim, he said to just be yourself, enjoy it and have some fun. He told me that right after the qualifier and that's what I'm doing."

His uncle, for one, isn't surprised at how his nephew is managing to take such a big leap at such a young age, in his typically measured stride.

"Will is very calm and level headed; he's amazing in that regard," Paul said. "He's down to earth and mature for his age. He can see the big picture.

"Thing is, he's a confident kid, but Will's not cocky. Even if it isn't golf, whatever he does in this life, he'll do it well."