Will Zalatoris and Ryder Cup: Can It Happen? Should it?

Golf fans discovered Will Zalatoris, maybe for the first time, at the Masters where he said, “if I’m stupid enough to think I can play here, then I’m stupid enough to think I can win it.”  And he nearly did, finishing second, one shot back of the winner Hideki Matsuyama.

Naturally, the twitter universe and online articles have gone a little crazy over him.  Lately the topic of conversation has been whether Will Zalatoris should be on the Ryder Cup team and whether he could be.  Many of the people voicing their opinions on the subject just don’t have all the correct information. Let’s review.

There are tweets like that say things like “let him earn PGA status.”  Then there were replies about how he still might be able to become a member.  This comes from the fact that Zalatoris is not now a PGA Tour member. He’s still a Korn Ferry Tour member.  But as one twitter contributor pointed out, yes, he can finish the upgrade by the end of this season which is before the Ryder Cup.

Here are the rules on how Zalatoris becomes a PGA Tour member which is different from what many are mistakenly calling “PGA” status.

As of last November, Zalatoris earned enough FedEx points, as a non-member of the PGA Tour, to earn temporary PGA Tour membership.  He can get full status, according to the PGA Tour, by earning as many FedEx points during this season as the person who is No. 125 at the end of the season.

There’s even a special list for non-members and their points.

In that category, Zalatoris has 1055 points as of this week.  In the 2018-2019 season, the number to make PGA Tour status at the end of the season was 376 points.  He’s obviously well ahead of that. So, there’s no question that Zalatoris will make the PGA Tour by season’s end. Cross that concern off your checklist.

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Now, should Zalatoris wins a PGA Tour event, he will automatically have an exemption for two years, and he’ll get his full membership at the end of the season.  Not before. Foreign players have won PGA Tour events, like Seve Ballesteros and Lee Westwood, but that didn’t make them PGA Tour members.

Ballesteros won six of what are now PGA Tour events, including the Masters twice, the Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic twice, the Greater Greensboro Open ( now the Wyndham) and this week’s event which was called the USF&G Classic back in 1985 when he won it.  He also won two British Opens and 46 other European Tour events. ( Both Tours count the Masters and the British Open now so sometimes you get double counting.)

Westwood has two PGA Tour victories. He later joined the PGA Tour and now has un-joined it and is back in Europe playing for their tour.

So, a PGA Tour victory is very nice, but it doesn’t have anything to do with getting him on the Ryder Cup team, although it might be a good convincer for captain Steve Stricker when it comes time to make picks.

Now back on twitter, there are a many who don’t believe Zalatoris should be allowed to play, apparently based on his non-PGA Tour membership.

They say, more or less, just because he had a few good finishes, it doesn’t make him a top American player and so on.

One post said that if Daffy Duck could get points for the US, he’d put the fowl on the team.  Agreed. That’s impossible to argue with.  Any cartoon character who can win points, make putts on tough greens and finish second at the Masters should automatically be eligible! This should be a new rule.

Someone pretending they were speaking for Europe answered the question of should Zalatoris be allowed to play Ryder Cup in one word: NO.

While all this is amusing and fun, the fact is that Will Zalatoris does not need a “Mother May I …”  from the PGA Tour to qualify for Ryder Cup. He does not need status as a PGA Tour player. He only needs two things: a great game and membership in the PGA of America.

What?? You ask.

That’s right.  PGA Tour membership has zero to do with whether or not golfers from the US can play Ryder Cup. What does count is that they must be PGA of America members.  Many people, in fact most people, confuse the two organizations or don’t even realize there’s a difference.

There are two famous cases of very good players being unable to play Ryder Cup because they were not PGA of America members, not because they were or weren’t PGA Tour members.  One is Jack Nicklaus, and he did not play Ryder Cup until 1969.   Really, in those days, the US was pretty much cleaning up on Great Britain and Ireland anyway. ( Europe wasn’t added until 1979. ) But having Nicklaus not on the teams was a huge oversight someplace along the line because Nicklaus had 27 victories by the time he played in his first matches, which was 1969.

The other one is Paul Azinger, who had a very good year in 1987 when he finished second at the British Open and won three times on the PGA Tour. But he had not signed up for membership in the PGA of America and as a result could not play Ryder Cup.  He got that straightened out by 1989, was on the team that year and on the next two teams, including the 1991 War by The Shore.

So whether you like Will Zalatoris or not and whether he has PGA Tour status or not, it has nothing to do with whether he can play Ryder Cup, because he can, if picked or if he earns enough points to finish in the top six. They are automatic selections.

Zalatoris is already a PGA of America member according to a PGA of America executive, and right now, he’s in 18th place on the Ryder Cup points list.  His PGA of America membership is the only requirement necessary to be considered.  Zalatoris’ ability to play pressure golf and make putts will be the deciding factors for Steve Stricker, whether Zalatoris finishes in the top 12 on the points list or misses that mark by a few slots.