For 29 other guys, the road to the FedEx Cup finale just opened a new, wide-open, high-speed lane.
For Will Zalatoris, though, a very costly medical dead end. One of the favorites this week to take the title at East Lake and the $18 million prize that comes with it, Zalatoris withdrew from the Tour Championship on Tuesday because of a back issue that flared during last week’s playoff semifinal.
According to his manager Allen Hobbs, Zalatoris was diagnosed with a pair of herniated discs in his back. He also will be sidelined for next month’s Presidents Cup.
The long-term physical implications for the 26-year-old ranked ninth in the world are uncertain. Backs, especially golfers’ backs, are tricky things. The immediate financial blow is painfully obvious. At No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings, Zalatoris was to begin the Tour Championship only three strokes back of points leader Scottie Scheffler, with four rounds to run him and others down and win the $18 million bounty. But now he is assigned a finish of 30th and $17.5 million less (last place here pays $500,000).
Zalatoris, who had a pair of runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, was coming off his first PGA Tour victory when the back injury struck. The week after winning the initial playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, he was on the third hole of the third round of the BMW Championship, just four strokes off the lead, when his back went out after a shot. He played the next hole, but then withdrew from the event in hopes he could get right for East Lake.
He is, Hobbs said in a statement, “fully focused on getting healthy and back onto the course as soon as he is able.” But no hint of timetable or course of treatment beyond that.
Meanwhile, the Tour Championship will proceed with a 29-player field, as there are no alternates for this event.
They’ll be barking at East Lake
The ascent of former Georgia Bulldog player Sepp Straka in 2022 has been inconsistent and dizzying, to say the least. But the important thing is, he made it to East Lake this week and his first Tour Championship.
“It’s always the ultimate goal to end the year here – it means you had a pretty good season,” he said.
Certainly a wild season in his case. Straka missed five cuts in his first eight events, beginning back in the fall and missed six consecutive cuts entering this playoffs. Yet, you factor in his first PGA Tour victory at the Honda Classic in south Florida and a runner-up in the first playoff event in Memphis and here he is, not just happy to be onboard this gravy train but thinking he could be the conductor.
“It’s trending in a good direction, it’s been pretty good the last couple weeks, good enough to contend,” said Straka, who is ninth in FedEx Cup points and will start Thursday at 4 under, six back of points leader Scheffler in this unique staggered-scoring tournament.
“It’s a hard golf course. That (the deficit) can all change around in nine holes,” he said.
Strakka, born in Austria but moved to Valdosta when he was a teen, will have no shortage of support at East Lake. His parents, brother and wife’s family will make the trip up from I-75 to watch. Friends from his college days in Athens have promised to join him as well. “I’ll have a bunch of Bulldogs, a bunch of friends following me around. It’s special,” said Straka, whose world ranking cratered to No. 222 at the start of the year but currently stands at a career-best 43rd.
Also hoping for a little home-course advantage is the other former Bulldog in the field, Brian Harman. He comes in at 25th in points, teeing off Thursday at 1 under, nine back of Scheffler. After starting the season slowly while recovering from thumb surgery, he’s solidly in the happy-to-be-here camp.
Harman’s been to one other Tour Championship (2018), and was just outside the top 30 the last two years (41st and 37th).
“I made a decent run at the playoffs last year, was playing some good golf,” he said. “But my thumb had been bothering me all year. It just took time, a lot of time for me to heal up and get back. I knew my game was good but getting healthy was really important.
“I’ve never really had to take any time off in my career, it was a hard way to start the year. I’m really, really happy the way I finished it.”
Schauffele back in Tour Championship
Xander Schauffele, who begins 6 under as the No. 4 ranked player, is making his sixth consecutive Tour Championship appearance. He’s placed T7 or better in each of his previous finishes, including top-five placement in four of his past five appearances. He won the 2017 Tour Championship, finishing third in the FedEx Cup standings under a different scoring format.
Schauffele’s No. 4 ranking this year is the best position he’s held entering the Tour Championship.
“It’s always a good thing to be back,” he said Tuesday. “It’s a course I’ve played pretty well on, and it’s always a big goal at the beginning of the year. So far, so good.”
Schauffele has three wins this season. He partnered with Patrick Cantlay in winning the Zurich Classic and won consecutive starts in the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. He finished T3 in last week’s BMW Championship, which was won by Cantlay. Schauffele hurt his friend’s chances at East Lake, however, when he missed birdie on 18 that cost Cantlay the top seed here. Cantlay instead is starting second, two strokes behind Scheffler.
Nine first-time players
Nine of the 29 players at East Lake are first-time participants (Zalatoris would’ve been the 10th). Those players are Straka (No. 9), Scott Stallings (No. 12), Cameron Young (No. 14), Matt Fitzpatrick (No. 15) Max Homa (No. 16), Tom Hoge (No. 23), K.H. Lee (No. 26), J.T. Poston (No. 27) and Sahith Theegala (No. 28).
The notable number of new players – the Tour Championship’s most since 2010 (11) – also is reflective of LIV Golf’s poaching, a storyline that’s hovered over the season.
“I guess some of the guys have gone to that other thing over there,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s probably a handful of those guys that might have been here. You don’t know. So I guess there’s something in that maybe.
“I was speaking to someone last week about average age of players now has dropped dramatically and guys are winning younger. That kind of says it all with nine first-timers. Obviously everyone is much younger of those first-timers. I think golf is obviously in a decent place on that front.”
Fitzpatrick had 10 top-10 finishes this season. He won the U.S. Open, besting Scheffler and Zalatoris by one stroke to earn his first major championship title and first win on the PGA Tour. Fitzpatrick finished No. 36 and No. 73 in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, respectively.
Five champions seeking FedEx Cup
On the other end of the spectrum, there are five previous FedEx Cup champions seeking another crown, including Cantlay (No. 2), Rory McIlroy (No. 7), Justin Thomas (No. 13), Jordan Spieth (No. 18) and Billy Horschel (No. 22).
McIlroy is trying to become the first three-time champion. McIlroy (2016, 2019) and Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) are the only players who have won multiple FedEx Cups. Cantlay is attempting to join them and become the first repeat champion.
“Back-to-back doesn’t do anything more, but two is a lot better than just one,” Cantlay said Tuesday.
