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Will Zalatoris makes ‘selfish’ plea to Tiger Woods

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2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Will Zalatoris may be one of the hottest prospects in the golfing world, but he holds nothing but the utmost respect for 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, pleading with him to ‘get in the damn cart’ if it means a chance of playing with him.

In part of an in-depth interview with Graham Bensinger, the world number 7, and seven time major top-10 finisher, cannot stop eulogising over his golfing idol, even saying it amazed him that Tiger even knows who he was.

Debating the greatest player, the 2022 FedEx St. Jude champion says that Tiger changed the game, so much so that it is hardly recognizable from a few years ago.

Zalatoris explains, “15 years ago, not everyone had trainers, sports psychologists, most people had, just like, one coach,” yet nowadays player’s can just about find room on the on-site training coach, such is the necessity to be super-fit.

“Tiger’s built like a tight end,” said the 26-year-old. “He is..like..enormous. body is like….his upper body, he is like, just a massive human.”

Asked whether he could see the day when he might play with the GOAT, Zalatoris can’t hide his enthusiasm.

“I would love to play with Tiger at least once, before he is done-done. Just to do it would be an amazing experience,” he says, smiling throughout.

Even past his best, Tiger is still seen as the golfer that changed golf.

“He [Tiger] is the needle, he doesn’t move it. Ive seen him. I mean, I’m playing and I’m like’ Oh my gosh!’ It’s insane!”

Zalatoris is clearly a fan, noticing first hand just how popular Tiger remains. “At the PGA, I played in front of him for two days,” he tells Bensinger. “We had more people following us so they could get a better view when Tiger rolls through!”

The host then asks, “Whats the likelihood you get to play with him?”

“Thats up to him,” Zalatoris replies.

” The part that amazes me is that he has such a hard time walking and he can still play some good golf. Tiger can get a cart if he wants to, but you know he’s never gonna take it, because that’s who he is. And I’m selfishly like ‘Get in the cart. I wanna play with you!’

He tells Tiger,

“You’ve proven people wrong countless times, getting back from injuries, and I’m like, Get in the damn cart!”

 

Sadly, Will doesn’t have his direct number and can’t text him to arrange a round, though admits close friend Tony Romo probably does.

“I never want to pry his space cos I have so much respect for what he did, even for me and he doesn’t even know me.” says a modest Zalatoris.

“I was laughing at the PGA this year, cos he was standing on the tee and he wasn’t even playing with anybody, and I was going to play with another buddy, and he says ‘Hey, do you wanna go?’ and I’m like ‘you wanna come?’ ”

Zalatoris admits, “I didn’t say it, but like Tiger says, you go, okay I’m going.”

He regrets not asking, saying his buddy bizarrely turned Tiger down.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I said. I mean, “I respect you trying to stay with me, but the feeling’s not mutual!”

He recalls getting close to his hero at St. Andrews when Tiger came over, slapped him on his behind and said, “Great play, Willy’ and I’m like, “Ooh, that’s him, I know him!”

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‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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