2022 Wyndham Championship: Top 10 Power Rankings at Sedgefield

Even down weeks for Will Zalatoris turn into sizable paychecks. The talented golfer was never in contention last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, but he did well for himself after making the cut on the number.

Zalatoris fired 69-65 on the weekend to climb 39 spots and finish T-20th. He was rewarded $99,120 for his efforts.

Big Z hasn’t contended in his three starts since the near miss at the U.S. Open (T-2nd), but he only missed one cut and posted a respectable T-28th in his first complete Open Championship. Zalatoris had to withdraw due to injury mid-tournament in 2021.

He has seven top-six finishes and three missed cuts this season.

Zalatoris comes to the Wyndham Championship for the third time. He debuted with scores of 71-67 in 2018 but 2-under doesn’t always cut it at this event.

Zalatoris improved to T-29th in 2021 (68-68-65-69). Last year, he only found one bunker all week and got up and down from it once. His case was hurt by ranking low in approach proximity and not excelling in any one area, specifically.

On the season, the 25-year-old ranks first on the PGA Tour in strokes gained approach (1.032) and second in SG tee to green (1.806). We’ve seen improvement with his putting at majors, but not throughout the course of the season. That should come with experience. The rest of the tools are already there.

He hasn’t truly heated up at Sedgefield yet, save for that Saturday 65 last year. Zalatoris can make birdies in bunches, as evidenced by ranking 12th in birdies per round (4.21).

I’m not projecting him to win this week, but I forecast Zalatoris getting back on track and going on to win a FedEx Cup Playoff event.

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