Will Zalatoris Urges Tiger Woods To Get A Cart Exemption

The recent first-time PGA Tour winner wants to play a round with his golfing hero before he retires

Will Zalatoris wants Tiger Woods to use a golf cart, increasing the chance he'll get to play with the 15-time Major winner
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Will Zalatoris wants Tiger Woods to use a cart so he can play more golf, increasing the chances he’ll get to fulfil a dream and play with the 15-time Major winner.

The 26-year-old, who saw his own season prematurely curtailed by injury having won his first PGA Tour title at the FedEx St Jude Classic, told journalist Graham Bensinger on his ‘In Depth With Graham Bensinger’ show that it’s his ambition to play a round with Tiger before the all-time great retires from the game.

He said: “I would love to play with Tiger at least once before he’s done-done just to do it. And I know that that would be an amazing experience because even at the PGA like I played in front of him the first two days, we had more people with us because the people would come up to our group to follow us so they could get a better look when Tiger rolls through than when I was in the final group on Saturday.

“The part that amazes me is that he just has such a hard time walking but man he can still play some good golf. Tiger could get a cart if he wants to, but you know he’s never going to take it because that’s who he is. Selfishly, I’m like, dude, get in the cart, I’m going to play with you, I want to see you when you’re 50, you’ve proven people wrong countless times coming back from injuries and I'm like get in the damn cart! 

“He’s just one of those guys that I never want to pry his space because I just have so much respect for how much he did even for me and he doesn’t know me. I was actually laughing at the PGA this year because he’s standing on the tee and he wasn’t playing with anybody, and I was going to play with another buddy and Tiger was standing on the tee and he said ‘Hey, do you guys wanna go’, I’m like, ‘You wanna come?’. I didn’t say it, I was like, ‘Okay yeah, Tiger tells me to go, I’m going, I got it’.

“It’s kinda fun because at the Open Championship, Tiger came by and smacked me on the backside and was like, ‘Hey, great playing Willy’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, that’s him, I know him!’"

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Jeff Kimber
Freelance Staff Writer

Jeff graduated from Leeds University in Business Studies and Media in 1996 and did a post grad in journalism at Sheffield College in 1997. His first jobs were on Slam Dunk (basketball) and Football Monthly magazines, and he's worked for the Sunday Times, Press Association and ESPN. He has faced golfing greats Sam Torrance and Sergio Garcia, but on the poker felt rather than the golf course. Jeff's favourite course played is Sandy Lane in Barbados, which went far better than when he played Matfen Hall in Northumberland, where he crashed the buggy on the way to the 1st tee!