WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 25, 2022

Will Zalatoris

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. You said you couldn't putt, right?

WILL ZALATORIS: Somebody said that.

Q. I mean, to drain those putts down the stretch and the playoff, I mean, just how much confidence does that give you going into the weekend?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, it's really nice. I mean, it was kind of hard fought today against Viktor. I basically played where I tried to make sure I just didn't make any mistakes. I made one mistake all day, really, and that's tough to beat but Viktor, obviously made me earn it today.

But, yeah, obviously new putter in the bag this week and couple little changes here and there on the off week and nice to see it hold up under pressure really in the first week.

Q. What putter are you using now and what changes did you make?

WILL ZALATORIS: It's the same thing. It's just a little more face balanced. It's as simple as that.

Q. What tweaks?

WILL ZALATORIS: That's really it, just making sure that my timing and my routine's the same and target, ball, go.

Q. What putt down the stretch was probably the most nerve wracking or the toughest, do you think?

WILL ZALATORIS: They're all the same. Leaking one out on 15, giving him the chance to kind of bring it back, and then making the one on 16, I knew that that was kind of the one that really was going to give me a chance of winning and getting into the playoff. But either way, no matter how it finished, obviously it's nice to make those putts.

Q. You've had some big match play moments in your career. Are you a believer in momentum, like in terms of what happened today carrying over into tomorrow?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, it's more on the individual basis, I think. Definitely, I mean, anytime you putt as good as I did today, every putt I hit looked like it was going in or was around the edge. So I was really proud of the way how I came back after yesterday. I really didn't roll it that well, I thought, and Sepp played great. I think he was 7-under, so you got to tip your cap to that.

But keep doing what we're doing and hopefully have more of this.

Q. You're a little older than Viktor. Have you guys faced off in match play at all in the past or no?

WILL ZALATORIS: No, no match play. We actually played against each other in the Maridoe Samaritan Fund Invitational during COVID and that was really the first time we had played together.

But we've got a bunch of mutual friends and we played a bunch of golf together besides that. We kind of duked it out there and that was a lot of fun, especially because we didn't have anything going on. Anytime you're going up against world No. 3 or whatever he is that's a tall task.

Q. Was that the second Maridoe?

WILL ZALATORIS: First one.

Q. Did he clip you that day?

WILL ZALATORIS: I got him there. Scottie won it, but Scottie I think birdied like four out of the last five or something like that to clip both of us.

Q. Being here in Texas and seeing quite a few guys hole some big putts from off the green, I wanted to ask you about the Texas wedge. When you decide to putt or chip, what's going through your mind? What's kind of been the calculus for you of deciding which is the route to go?

WILL ZALATORIS: Yeah, you know, it's really nice around the greens here having the overseed. It's a little bit sticky as opposed to kind of what we're used to with the Bermuda where it kind of rolls through it more true.

But kind of the old adage of when in doubt putt it and a bad putt's better than a bad chip.