In the eight major championships he has already played, the 25-year-old Californian has five times ended up inside the top-eight.

Perhaps most impressively, his resume already boasts top-six finishes in three of the four constituent parts of the game’s Grand Slam. Only a place on the Open Championship leaderboard is missing from that impressive record. Which is excusable. In his debut at Royal St. George’s last year, Zalatoris had to withdraw through injury.

All of which only underlines the likelihood that, over the next four days, this ball-striking machine will at least contend for what would be his maiden professional victory. Indeed, it is his exceptional play from tee-to-green that makes Zalatoris and the majors so compatible. Especially the U.S. Open, of course. “Fairways and greens” has forever been a winning mantra in America’s national championship.

So it is that Zalatoris was making many positive noises after completing the back-nine holes on the eve of the championship.

“My game is a in a great spot,” he said. “I’m in a great headspace. I love playing hard courses. Coming off the Korn Ferry Tour – where you have to shoot 25-under every week – I like that par is a good score. You can say this about every U.S. Open venue, but it is especially true this week.

RIGHT: Zalatoris is full aware his sometimes balky short putting is key to his success at Brookline. PHOTO: Tom Pennington/Getty Images.

“You just have to hit as many greens as you can. I love poa annua surfaces. They are what I grew up on in the Bay Area. They are firm. They are fast. All of which adds up to me aiming to hit as many greens as I possibly can. So I’ll hopefully be giving myself as many ‘looks’ as possible. Then it comes down to the putter getting hot.”

Ah yes, the putting. If there is a weakness in the World No.14’s game it is on the greens. Employing his own version of the “claw grip” – combined with a putter shaft running up the inside of his left arm – Zalatoris’s stroke has been the subject of much analysis on television and in the press. No one questions his ability to hit the ball solidly. But putting, especially from short range, he has at times displayed a demeanour some way short of confident.

Still, he is making all the right noises, claiming to be “putting the best I have since I came on Tour.” And he will need to here in the Boston suburb of Brookline. The Country Club greens feature many slopes, a fact that will make both putting and chipping a challenge.

“A feature of most U.S. Opens is having a lot of 4-6 footers for par,” says Zalatoris. “Here those are more likely to be 7-9 feet long. You just have to play the highest line you can. There is no ramming putts in here. You just can’t. If you make about 80 percent of your short putts you’ll be gaining shots on the field. It’s going to be a bit like Winged Foot in 2020. There, I was playing 7-8 footers maybe a foot outside the hole.”

“My game is a in a great spot. I’m in a great headspace. I love playing hard courses ... I like that par is a good score. You can say this about every U.S. Open venue, but it is especially true this week." - Will Zalatoris.

No matter, at least according to Zalatoris, The Country Club – which is hosting its fourth U.S. Open – is no one-dimensional test of execution. Strategy, imagination and flair will get their due, something that is not always the case in a traditional U.S. Open.

“This is one of the most fun U.S. Open venues because there are so many ways to play maybe six holes out here,” he claims. “You can’t tell anyone they made a bad decision unless they hit a bad shot. I’ll be hitting iron off the tee at 5, 7, 9 and 17. Take 17. You can lay-up with a 5-iron off the tee and have wedge in. You can hit 3-iron and challenge the fairway bunkers. Or you can rip a driver. There might even be options between driver and 3-iron. It’s just a great test.

“In general, you have to know where you can and can’t miss,” he continues. “You can be a foot off the green and have nothing. Or you can be 35-feet from the flag and have a better look than if you are 15-feet out in a bad spot. But that’s the great thing about this course. A 400-yard hole isn’t necessarily a break. But when the USGA lets you hit a wedge, do not complain. Take it and move on.”

As is clear, Zalatoris fancies his chances of claiming what would be, not only his first major victory, but his first first-place anywhere other than the second-division Korn Ferry Tour since he turned professional in 2018.

“I think it’s all about attitude at the majors,” he says. “I’ve had a great year. I want to win, of course. All I have to do is keep doing what I’m doing and the first win is just going to get in the way. Last year I pressed really hard and worked myself into an injury. It was a pretty tough couple of months not being in the Playoffs and having to think through mistakes that I made. But even losing in two play-offs this year has shown me my game is good enough to win.”

Zalatoris has seen plenty to like, and suit his game, during his scouting of The Country Club. PHOTO: USGA.

The second of those play-off losses, of course, came at the most recent major championship, last month’s PGA at Southern Hills. There, Zalatoris lost out to some inspired play down the stretch and into the play-off by eventual champion Justin Thomas.

“Losing at Southern Hills hurt,” admits Zalatoris. “By no means was I happy about that. The great thing is JT played the play-off holes almost perfectly. He birdied the two holes you are supposed to birdie. And he made par on the toughest hole on the course. You have to tip your cap to him.

“I don’t have any regrets about any of the decisions I made, even the bogey on 16. At the time I was three back, knowing I probably needed to make birdie on the last three. So I can’t have any regrets about trying to make birdie on all three. I made a good run at it. I played 65 really good holes and seven mediocre to bad ones on Saturday. I’m seven holes away from winning a major.”

One last thing. As far as the LIV Series of events is concerned, Zalatoris is first and last, a PGA Tour man.

“I’ve stated my allegiance to the Tour,” he says. “But I get the reasons other guys for going. I hate to give the same answer Rory and JT have been giving. But I will. It is each player’s decision. It’s not my place to tell them what to do. There are way more questions than answers right now. It’s evident from the guys who went to LIV that they don’t have answers they can give to certain questions.

“Guys like myself know we are playing on the best Tour on earth,” he continues. “We play the best courses. We are treated unbelievably well. Over the next month or so we will probably have more answers than questions. But right now that’s why you see guys not being able to give answers. The questions are really tough. I think we’ll have a better picture down the road.”

And, four days from now, we might just have a better idea of just how talented Will Zalatoris really is. The signs are all good.