At the historic 150th Open Championship, we got the chance to catch up with rising superstar, Will Zalatoris, and get an insight in to the mind of the phenom as he prepared to take his shot at the Claret Jug. Will has been inches away from his first major championship on multiple occasions this year, acheiving a 6th place finish at this years Masters and also finsihing 2nd in both the U.S Open and PGA Championship. Safe to say, with such an extreme talent Will is no doubt on course to have an incredible career and we were hugely excited to get the chance to see what makes him tick both on and off the course.

Scottsdale Golf (SG): How is it being in St Andrews? Its a very special open its the 150th, at the home of golf, what's that like?
Will Zalatoris (WZ): Saturday we came out and we were walking down fairways with the locals and their dogs, with kids playing soccer down the fairway, or I guess I should say say football on this side of the pond, but its been a blast, we've tried to soak it up as much as we possibly can. Even though there's going to be some fairly low scores, St Andrews is putting up a pretty good fight with how firm and how windy it is. 

 

SG: Its not usually like this in St Andrews. Normally an Open here you'll get rain, you'll get wind, all the conditions. So what's it like out on the course? Is it playing well?
WZ: Yeah you know, balls are going a mile. With how firm it is, I've hit a few 3 irons and they've almost gone 350 yards just because its downwind, super firm and they keep chasing and so its been a battle but its been fun trying to learn as much as we can of the golf course today and I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job doing my homework but you can always do more.

SG: So what's going to be your game plan going in to Thursday? Are you setting anything up different in the bag?
WZ: I think with how windy its going to be, were going to be playing the ball on the ground a lot. Basically Thursday and Friday were not going to take too many chances and just keep the ball in front of us and just see where were at, obviously if we need to go make a run at it, we'll make a run, obviously were going to play it day by day but you never know, that's the thing about here, it looks like we might get a little bit of rain to soften it up a little but with how firm it is already, we'll take anything we can get. 

 

Focus then turned to a chipping challenge we had set up in the FootJoy camping village in which we asked Will some quickfire questions.

SG: So Will, if you weren't a professional golfer, what would you be?
WZ: I think probably a baseball player, I loved playing baseball growing up, I pitched until I was about 14/15 and because I played so much golf I was a terrible hitter, the only thing I could hit was low and away, you know where is a golf club. I love playing baseball, I keep up with it year round.

SG: Who is your team?
WZ: San Francisco Giants, I was born in the Bay Area and they had a pretty good run as I was growing up.

SG: Favourite player?
WZ: Probably Buster Posey, he's the ultimate gentleman, one of the best catchers in the game and he's a future Hall of Famer so its tough not to root for the guy.

SG: Have you ever played golf with any of those guys?
WZ: Buster's a great player. I haven't played golf with him yet, but he's definitely for me it would be a fantasy foursome guy. I believe he's a 1 or 2 handicap so he's good and should be even better now he's retired.

 

SG: That leads nicely on to the next question. 3 dinner guests, dead or alive, who are you inviting?
WZ: That's a good one, I'm probably going to go with comedians. I'm probably gonna go with, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and probably Dave Chapelle. I've got a lot of different ones I'd want to do, whether its golf or presidents but I'm all in on a few laughs.

SG: Next question, most famous person in your phone?
WZ: I would say either Tony Romo or Charles Barkley.
SG: Quite impressive, do you speak to those guys much?
WZ: Romo a lot, Charles not a tonne, but if you want to talk about good dinner guests, those two they'll make sure they'll cut through the line, that's for sure.

SG: Whats your guilty pleasure?
WZ: Ice cream. Now I know I dont look like a big ice cream guy but in the off season, its a problem. I mean its probably like a pint a night. In Texas you've got Blue Bell which is very popular. My Fiancé is actually dairy intolerant so we've got this dairy-free one called "NadaMoo" in Dallas in Texas, its nice in that its so light, and when I say its nice, that's when I crush two pints. Its nice but that's when its scary for me and it can get ugly.

SG: What's your biggest fear?
WZ: Probably driving in Texas some days, because I know if I cut someone off they might have a gun rack... no I'm kidding. Driving in Texas, we have an 85mph speed limit down south, so if you drive 90 by a cop they're probably just going to let you go so its wild. Its the wild west down in Texas.

SG: Have you got a big truck?
WZ: No, I've just got an SUV but im weird not having a truck living in Texas.

SG: Okay this is a food related one. If you had to pick one, drink Ketchup through a straw or eat mayonnaise with a spoon?
WZ: I guess Spike in Notting Hill ate mayonnaise and thought it was yoghurt, so I guess I'll go with that one. Drinking ketchup through a straw sounds awful.

SG: Okay, last question we've got. What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you? Golf or non golf related, or both if they're different.
WZ: I had one really good one, where I went to this dinner party for the Superbowl this year, so it was fairly recent. This was a cool deal, a lot of celebrities went, I was obviously not a celebrity, just a friend of someone who donated some money. So we showed up and started talking to this woman, her name was Cindy. So were talking and I introduce myself "Hi I'm Will" blah blah blah, I had no idea it was Cindy Crawford for the first 15 minutes. So of all people, you would think that if it was Cindy Crawford I would've figured that out pretty quickly, the first 15 minutes we were just sitting there talking then I looked at myself and thought you moron, you are so dumb!

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SG: Before we go, we obviously have to mention that you've got the new FootJoy X Harris Tweed's on, obviously with heritage to Scotland, where Harris Tweed is from. What's it like having that partnership with FootJoy?
WZ: Its been awesome. Last year was my first Open championship and especially this week, more people make comments about my shoes than any week all year and this year its even more. I actually still have last years sitting in my locker, I wear them literally once a week. But these are, off the charts, cool. Obviously partnering with Harris Tweed, in Scotland, 150th Open championship at St Andrews, yeah, that's pretty cool. 

 

SG: Thank you very much Will, and good luck this week!

It was great to have the opportunity to speak with Will and see a player with such talent and potential remain so grounded, despite so much success this early in his career. Whilst he unfortunately didn't challenge for the Open on Sunday afternoon he still finished a very creditible tied 28th, and there is absolutely no doubt that he is at the beginning of an illustrious career.  Everyone at Scottsdale Golf will be rooting for Will in future tournaments, what a legend!

 

 

 

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