Former Deacon Zalatoris Shines In Masters Debut, Finishing Second

Former Wake Forest golfer Will Zalatoris came within a few strokes of winning the coveted green jacket at Augusta National Sunday in his Masters debut. 

Wake Forest has a proud golf history and Zalatoris added to the legacy Sunday, making a run that almost made him the first Deacon to win the Masters since the last of Arnold Palmer's four wins back in 1964. 

Zalatoris was among those chasing Hideki Matsuyama for most of the afternoon. Matsuyama at one point had begun to pull away but started to falter near the end. Ultimately he was able to hold off the Deacon challenger, winning with a score of ten under, one stroke better than Zalatoris.

It was an impressive debut for the Masters rookie. Zalatoris played three-and-a-half seasons for Wake Forest, where he was a conference player of the year in 2017 and an All-American. He turned pro in December of that year.

With the win, Matsuyama becomes the first male golfer from Japan to win a major championship.