Will-the-Thrill wins first tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship

Zalatoris bests Sepp Straka in wild 3-hole playoff

First off, the tournament Thursday thru Sunday mid-afternoon was a good one. The best players in the world, except those who jumped over to LIV, were mainly taking it to the TPC Southwind course in Memphis.

Then, thanks to some Zalatoris heroics on his 72nd and final green, things got more than a little interesting for those of us 65+ watching at home on big screens (LIV thinks we are all old birds).

Will Z. drained a massive par putt on his 72nd hole and the crowd went bonkers. (He could have used that putt at the US Open, but that’s another story.)

Sepp Straka, the big boy from the U of GA, narrowly missed the winning putt in reg, and off to a sudden death playoff they went.

The butt-puckering 18th-hole tee shot has to be one of the hardest in all of golf, especially with $2.7M on the line.

Here is Straka in full pucker-mode.

To keep his tourney hopes alive, Straka rolled in a CLUTH par putt to tie Will and head to sudden death hole #2.

The nerves kicked in on the 2nd playoff hole. 18th tee. Puckerville.

Somehow Will’s drive didn’t go out-of-bounds to the right.

And somehow Sepp’s drive stayed dry (ball, not feet) low and left.

After the two competitors caught their breath, they steadied themselves and both made ridiculous pars, to ensure there was going to be a 3rd, and what turned out to be the final, playoff hole.

Then crazy shi* went down on the par-3 11th.

Both Will and Sepp hit the rocks short and right with only short irons in hand.

Both ended up hitting their 3rd shots from the drop area, albeit, for a good 5 minutes, it looked like Will was going to attempt the impossible and hit it off of the rocks. Common sense prevailed.

In the end, only one of these guys was able to hoist the BIG-A-TROPHY, and that honor went to Will Zalatoris, first-time PGA TOUR victor.

Final Tourney Results and Payoff Here:

Click here for full results