Will Zalatoris was slated to start third on the Tour Championship leader board before he was forced to withdraw because of a back injury.
after four holes during Saturday’s third round. At the time, he was only four strokes off the lead.
At the Tour Championship, the golfers start with an assigned score based on their ranking in the FedEx Cup points list. Zalatoris ranks third so he was slated to start the tournament at 7 under par, three strokes behind Scottie Scheffler and one behind Patrick Cantlay.The PGA Tour said the starting positions for the remaining 29 golfers in the field will not be affected by Zalatoris’s withdrawal.
the biggest purse on the PGA Tour and more than any of the four majors, and even the second-place golfer receives $6.5 million.Still, because he qualified for the Tour Championship for the first time, Zalatoris will receive an invitation to next year’s Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, and his win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship will get him into next year’s PGA Championship.but has ascended to his current ninth-place standing thanks to nine top-10 finishes and the one victory.