Will Zalatoris Gives Encouraging Health Update During ESPN Interview

Zalatoris, out since April following back surgery, also gave a timetable for when he expects to return to the PGA Tour.

Jeff Ritter | May 19, 2023

Will Zalatoris Gives Encouraging Health Update During ESPN Interview /

Will Zalatoris was a fixture at major championship during the past two seasons, and he says he expects to return from his recent back surgery better than ever.

Zalatoris, who has been out of action since withdrawing from the WGC Match Play, appeared on ESPN’s “Matty and the Caddie” PGA Championship simulcast, and told the hosts that for the first time in two years he’s pain-free.

"No headaches, no leg pain. This is the best I've felt. I feel great," he said.

He also said he expects to return to the PGA Tour in September.

It’s encouraging news from one of golf’s most promising young players. He was the 2021 PGA Tour rookie of the year and has six top 10s in majors, including a playoff loss to Justin Thomas at last year’s PGA Championship. He won the 2022 FedEx St. Jude, a FedEx Playoff event, and the following week he withdrew with his back injury and missed the Tour Championship and Presidents Cup.

In April Zalatoris had a microdiscectomy to relieve pain from his herniated discs.

Ninety-nine of the world’s top 100 players are in the field this week at Oak Hill, with Zalatoris the lone player absent.

Published May 19, 2023

JEFF RITTER

Jeff Ritter is the managing director of SI Golf. He has more than 20 years of sports media experience, and previously was the general manager at the Morning Read, where he led that business's growth and joined SI as part of an acquisition in 2022. Earlier in his career he spent more than a decade at SI and Golf Magazine, and his journalism awards include a MIN Magazine Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.