Zalatoris and Kraft Take Final Exemption Spots in the 2015 AT&T Byron Nelson
They Join Six Other Sponsor Exemptions In the Field at
TPC Four Seasons Resort & Club
IRVING, Texas, May 24, 2015 – Will Zalatoris and Kelly Kraft grab the final two sponsor exemptions into the 2015 AT&T Byron Nelson, which kicks off Monday, May 25 at TPC Four Seasons Resort & Club Dallas in Irving.
Zalatoris, who is from Plano, Texas, just completed his freshman season at Wake Forest University. During his high school years, Zalatoris won the UIL TAPPS Individual Championship in 2012 and 2013, and led Trinity Christian Academy to the state championship in 2011 and 2013. In 2014, he won the Texas State Amateur, the Trans Mississippi Championship and the USGA Junior Amateur Championship. Zalatoris is currently ranked #18 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Kraft is a former U.S. Amateur Champion who played for Southern Methodist University and on the 2011 U.S. Walker Cup team. The Denton, Texas native collected his first professional win this year at the Web.com Tour’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by NACHER. He currently sits in 2nd place on the Web.com’s money list.
The other six exemptions went to Rod Pampling, John Rollins, Cody Gribble, Brandon Hagy, John Mallinger and Cameron Smith.
Pampling is coming off a win at the 2015 Web.com Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am. The two-time winner on the PGA TOUR is a native of Australia, but owns a home right here in North Texas in Flower Mound. Also an Australian is Smith who finished 5th on the 2014 Asian Tour Order of Merit. He is a past winner of the Australian Amateur and the Australian Stroke Play Championship.
Past Byron Nelson International Junior Golf Award winner, Gribble, is a current player on the Web.com Tour who played for Highland Park and the University of Texas, where he won a national championship. Last year, he finished tied for 21st at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, one stroke behind his former Texas teammate Jordan Spieth.
Hagy is also an award winner, earning the 2014 Byron Nelson Award for athletic & academic excellence while he was an All-American at University of California – Berkley. Mallinger is the ironman of the PGA TOUR, averaging 28 events per year on the PGA Tour from 2007 to 2010, while Rollins has 399 starts in 18 years on the PGA TOUR making the AT&T Byron Nelson his 400th start.
The field of 156 players will vie for the $7.1 million purse, the $1,287,000 first-place check and 500 FedExCup points.
