The Valero Texas Open is underway at the Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio. This is a very exciting tournament because it is the last chance for a high number of players aiming to play in next week's luxurious tournament. The winner will be invited to play in 2026 The Masters, while the rest of the field will be filled with former winners, major winners within the last five years, players in the Top 50 of the current world rankings, and more who have accomplished the needed requirements.

Someone who must win this week's Texas Open is 29-year-old rising star Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris has one career PGA Tour win, and it was one of the biggest and most shocking wins you will see. Zalatoris won the 2021 FedEx St. Jude Championship, which is the first of three straight playoff tournaments. That propelled him to a great start to his career, but he has not been able to win since. He has finished in second place five times with 12 Top 5's in his career. He's been very close, and this weekend, he will be close yet again.

Zalatoris is currently five under par through 16 holes on Thursday. He was just tied with five other players for a 6-man lead until Tony Finau took the lead late in his day.

Zalatoris led for most of the day until he recently bogeyed on the 7th. After starting on the back nine, the 29-year-old birdied the 10th, 14th, 15th, 17th, and 18th for a fantastic start. He did bogey the 16th Par 3, but he capitalized on the two Par 5's for a 32. After that bogey on the 16th, he responded with four straight birdies as mentioned above, including the 1st and 2nd holes on the front nine. Zalatoris was -6 until his bogey on the 7th. Two holes remain for him.

When asked after his day about when he thinks about Augusta, Zalatoris responded.

“I mean, I have my yardage book at home, rather at our rental, but after everything that I've kind of gone through, I'm just glad that I'm able to do this. I think there were probably a few moments that I thought I was done just considering the pain that I was in day to day, but the fact that l'm able to come out and do this again and stripe it the way I did and still have 178 ball speed, you know, after everything l've been through, it's still really encouraging. If anything, it's kind of been a blessing too having this time off and not be able to hit balls because I think everybody knows I needed to work on my putting, and that's all I've done for basically the last two years and how to learn to use the broomstick and it's paid off.”