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Former Wake Forest Golfer Will Zalatoris Voted PGA Rookie Of The Year

Former Demon Deacon Will Zalatoris has been voted the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Former Wake Forest University men's golfer Will Zalatoris has been voted as the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. 

Zalatoris was announced as the Arnold Palmer Award winner for the 2020-21 season on Monday. He is the first player in 20 years to receive the award without being a full PGA Tour member.

According to a Wake Forest news release, Zalatoris entered 25 events with eight top tens.  He secured his place as a major contender during the 85th Masters Tournament in April, finishing as a runner-up. That opened the door to a PGA Tour Special Temporary Membership for the remainder of the season. 

After finishing 14th on the Korn Ferry Tour standings, Zalatoris entered the current season as a full-time member of the PGA Tour for the first time.

The 25-year-old from Dallas, Texas, won the award over the only other rookie on the ballot, South Africa's Garrick Higgo.

The Rookie of the Year Award was named after former Demon Deacon legend Arnold Palmer, who helped put the school's golf program on the map.

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Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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