Will Zalatoris reveals his hardcore off-season putting training routine: "Some really hard drills"

Will Zalatoris finished the first 36 holes of The Sentry in a tie for 12th place with a score of 11 under. His performance so far has been marked by his putting, which has been in excellent shape.

Zalatoris talked about this during one of his interviews at The Sentry. The player explained that the transition to the broomstick putter has worked well for him, but he still needs to improve. So he and his coach put him on a rigorous training regimen last off-season.

Will Zalatoris (Image via Getty).

This was part of what Will Zalatoris had to say, via Golf Digest:

"I mean, it's cleaned up everything inside of 10 feet, which obviously was usually my bugaboo, but I felt like I needed to make more 10 to 25 footers. So we made some really hard drills, Josh Gregory and I, and I wasn't leaving each day until I completed 'em especially from the 10 to 25 foot range."

He added:

"So, 30 putts, five 10-footers, five 12-footers, five 15, five 17, five 20 and I got to make nine out of 30, and do it until you complete it. So it's basically, like the drills that we do, you look at the strokes gained average from those distances and then maybe try to raise it, maybe try to get to strokes gained plus 1, which make it's that much harder, especially if you're doing it on a practice green that I know. Obviously it paid off today."

Will Zalatoris gained more than three strokes with his putting during the first round of The Sentry but had negative numbers in the second round. On the first day, his putting average was 1.56, and on Friday it dropped to 1.80.

A look at Will Zalatoris' performance at The Sentry 2025

Will Zalatoris' performance during the first round of The Sentry included eight birdies and no bogeys. His highlight of the day was the front nine, where he made five birdies.

Friday's performance was less fortunate. Zalatoris again played a bogey-free front nine, with birdies on the 5th and 9th, but bogeyed the 10th. Although he did not make any more bogeys for the rest of the round, he was only able to add two more birdies, on the 16th and 18th.

With this performance, Zalatoris is solo 12th at 11-under, five shots back of the leader, Hideki Matsuyama. This is Zalatoris' second appearance at The Sentry. His previous experience was in 2023 when he tied for 11th with a score of 20-under.

Will Zalatoris played 22 PGA Tour events in 2024, making 15 cuts. He finished in the top 10 just three times, including a tie for second at the Genesis Invitational, his best finish of the year. His results allowed him to finish in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings.