Will Zalatoris announced on Tuesday that he was forced to withdraw from the Tour Championship due to two herniated discs in his back.
Zalatoris picked up his first PGA Tour win just two weeks ago in the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but he had to withdraw from the following week's BMW Championship due to the same issue.
The World No. 9 will be missing more than just the Tour finale. His injury means that he will be forced out of the Presidents Cup, the team competition that pits America versus the world squad that holds the best non-American or European players.
Will Zalatoris is a WD from the TOUR Championship with a back injury. pic.twitter.com/HlC5pDsJWX
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) August 23, 2022
Zalatoris entered the Tour Championship as a +1200 underdog at BetMGM to win the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup title that comes with it, considering the staggered scoring of the event.
The PGA Tour changed the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup format four years ago to ensure that the winner of this event would also win the overall competition, rather than a points accumulation system.
That means the higher a player is in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the Tour Championship, the better position they'll start the tournament in.
For example, leader Scottie Scheffler will tee off with a 10-under head start. Zalatoris would've opened at 7-under.
The American is a three-time second-place finisher in Majors, with each finish coming in the past two years.
Scottie Scheffler is favored to win the Tour Championship at +240, while Patrick Cantlay (+400) and Xander Schauffele (+700) slot in behind.
Jason Sobel's Betting Analysis
Unlike most PGA TOUR events, there are no alternates for the Tour Championship field, which means Zalatoris’ withdrawal cuts the entry list to 29 players.
More importantly for the overall title, his starting position in the staggered scoring leaderboard also won’t be replaced, meaning nobody will begin at 7-under, where he was supposed to be. This greatly enhances the win probability for Scheffler, who will open in the lead at 10-under, and Patrick Cantlay, who is trying to win back-to-back FedEx Cup titles, at 8-under.
There’s another wrinkle here, too. With Zalatoris also out of next month’s Presidents Cup, captain Davis Love III will be looking further down the points list for a final wildcard selection.
That means the likes of Tom Hoge (13th on the final points list), J.T. Poston (14th), Scott Stallings (18th), Brian Harman (20th) and Aaron Wise (21st) have one last chance to make a good impression this week.
