SANDERSON FARMS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 1, 2021

Will Zalatoris

Country Club of Jackson

Quick Quotes

Q. Sometimes when you miss a major you miss a big event you watch it on TV it kind of gets you like super fired up to go. Did you watch any of the Ryder Cup and did that fire you up at all?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, a little bit. I honestly I watched more highlights of the guys that I'm really close with, like I wanted to see Scottie playing and but, yeah, I definitely it fired me up a little bit. I was always on the outside looking in, but still, I mean any time you get a chance to represent your country and me missing out by a little bit it was definitely motivating. But I think if anything my goal for this year's to win a golf tournament and I've did a really good job of today just everything that I've worked on over the past really six, seven weeks, it really clicked. A lot better wedge game, a lot better speed control with the putter and I drove it a lot better today. Driving and then I've got the distance but when I hit fairways is when I shoot low rounds. So everything kind of came together today.

Q. Is there anything different this season or is it just for you is it just a matter of getting a hundred percent healthy?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, no, I'm a hundred percent healthy, I feel great. I've got asked a lot what are your goals for this year and besides winning a golf tournament I really don't have any. It's just getting better at what I'm all around with my game and then my earn play, obviously is what's made me a great player, but improving on my weaknesses, having a day where you make 150 feet of putts and hitting a lot of fairways, that's something that really this year I have more process goals than in terms of results goals. But of course everyone has goals of trying to be on a Ryder Cup or a Presidents Cup, so I'm, I would be lying if I said I don't have a little fire in my belly after missing out and watching guys that I grew up with playing as a part of Team USA, so hopefully down the road I'll be a part of that team.

Q. Is it kind of a relief to not be in that weird status that you were in last season and to know that like you're a normal full fledged TOUR member?

WILL ZALATORIS: Well, I mean sort of, I'm not in CJ Cup or Zozo, so -- I actually just got a spot at Zozo -- so I'm still carrying the remnants of that, if you will, so I'm not really out of the weird status yet, but at the same time I mean obviously being able to plan my schedule's a massive, massive bonus.

Q. And Cam you overlapped for how many years at Wake Forest?

WILL ZALATORIS: Three years.

Q. What about his game, obviously he's shown it over the last year plus that's taken him to this level?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, he's incredibly stoic. That's the thing with him is that you'll never see him be a fireball or anything like that, he's an incredibly steady player, he hits it a mile and when he drives it straight I mean it's tough to beat him because he's got great hands around the greens too. So he and I we practiced a lot together, we were the guys that maybe got out there a little early and stayed a little later, played a lot, more so than the other guys on the team. We roomed a bunch together at tournaments, so it will be a lot of fun because technically we've never played in a tournament together so hopefully this will be our first time.

Q. Is there like a story like back to college that you can tell us that kind of capsulated who Cameron is?

WILL ZALATORIS: Oh, man, yeah, yeah, actually. We had a kid come in for a recruiting trip and at Old Town where we play 1, 2 and 3 ends right by -- or 3 ends right by the first tee, and so he caught up with us on 4. And he made six 3s in a row taking his shoes out of his, literally changing the shoes out of his trunk of his car, hopped out, eagled the first, chipped in on the second for birdie, made a mistake and made par on 5 and then I think he chipped in one more time and made a couple 20-footers. So he made six 3s in a row. And that's just Cam, like he, like I said, he's not the most fiery emotional guy out there, but it's like he just didn't hit a single ball warming up, didn't hit a single putt made six 3s and like, okay, let's go grab dinner. I'm like, okay. (Laughing).

Q. You mentioned like Scottie, how much have you chatted with Scottie or Jordan since the result?

WILL ZALATORIS: I actually haven't talked to either one of them. But seeing -- when Scottie got paired against Jon Rahm and in singles I, if I was a betting man I would have put all my money on Scottie, just because he's a gamer. You saw what he did against Aaron Wise in Oregon's backyard. He's just always been that fiery competitor and the moment's never too big for him. So he and I have had a lot of great battles literally since -- we played together since we were nine years old, but he's a guy that there's just never a moment that's too big and you think he's out of it, next thing you know he chips one in and makes a 30-footer. That's something he kind of mimics Jordan in that respect too.

Q. And you did watch it a little bit Sunday or you watched a lot of it or how much did you watch?

WILL ZALATORIS: Not a ton. I mean I watched him, I watched a little bit of Jordan, but I honestly I was just trying to get ready for this week. But I watched all the highlights of the guys, so I saw I guess every single shot that Scottie and Jordan hit and went back and watched their parts, but everybody else, once I saw that we were up 6-2 after the first session I internally I was like, this is over, these guys are too good.

Q. You said, you joked over here with the radio guy and said, I'm not a good putter. Why did you joke about that?

WILL ZALATORIS: I think it's funny that I get given a hard time about my putting and if you add in Augusta last year which didn't have Shot Link I would have been a positive strokes gained putter. Is it the prettiest? No. But am I productive? Yes. So the days where I make 20-footers, those are the days that I end up putting great round together, because I'm always going to be the guy that's going to hit 14 plus greens to give myself chances. So I got to give a lot of credit to Josh Gregory, he and I spent a lot of time together over the last four, five weeks and really just kind of really just kind of honed in our practice routine, we added in a few new things. I've been a great lag putter, but at the same time I left a lot of 20-footers short last year. So we fixed that. Today is a perfect example. I made a couple 20-footers that would have gone four, five feet by, which before I maybe would have kind of cozied them up there. So it's been a fun process so keep on plotting.