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A heartbreaking moment for Will Zalatoris. The golfer recently finished as the runner-up for the 2024 Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club. However, the revelation of what followed in the post-round interview overshadowed his T2 finish at the Tiger Woods-hosted event and broke him.

A tweet was shared by ‘PGA TOUR’ on X (previously known as Twitter) showcasing the pro, nearly breaking down as he lost his family member. The golfer said, “I lost a family member on Thursday. She was with me all week.”

Although the 27-year-old was “pretty excited” when asked about his game and his current emotions, he couldn’t hold himself back as he recounted the heart-wrenching memory. Adding on, he expressed how hard it was for him to regroup with what was happening amid the signature event, as he said, “It was very unexpected.”

“This whole week was for her. My family can’t be here no matter what would have happened,” he said before continuing to confess how they would be very proud of how he played despite their absence. He didn’t provide further information about the family member who passed away.

Elaborating on his family’s whereabouts, Zalatoris divulged, they were in the Northwest while alluding to the loss of his close kin. Even so, the American Pro was grateful for the life he was living, as he said, “Just shows you life’s short and appreciate the moments,” before going ahead to convey how lucky he was to be out here.

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Will Zalatoris finishes second at the Genesis Invitational

The athlete tied for second with Luke List while registering a score of 14 under 270. Meanwhile, he was able to rake in a total of $1,800,000 from the prize pool of $20 million, along with 375 FedEx points. What’s more, over the four days of play, he carded figures of 66-70-65-69, enabling him to cement his place at the top rungs of the leaderboard.

Interestingly, he scored a total of 22 birdies over the whole tourney while dishing out an eagle on the second day, along with 10 bogeys. His T2 finish awarded him a total of 32.90139 points on the OWGR, pushing his spot from 54 to 32, a whopping jump of 22 places. It was only his fourth tournament back on the Tour after he had to undergo back surgery.

In 2022, he missed several months because of two herniated discs and the injury became worse in 2023. It became too much for him to handle at Augusta National. As a result, he withdrew from the Masters in April 2023, just 30 minutes before his opening-round tee time.

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