Will Zalatoris Now Looks Ahead After Returning to Action at the Hero World Challenge

Like Tiger Woods, Will Zalatoris returned to play this week after a long recovery from surgery, resisting an earlier comeback.

More Weekly Read: Harmony Remains Distant | Inside LIV Golf's Qualifier

He was disappointed to have to withdraw from the Masters and surgery awaited. Sounds like Tiger Woods, who got all the attention this week in the Bahamas. But in this case, it was Will Zalatoris, who for the better part of a year has battled a disk issue in his lower back that led to surgery.

Zalatoris played for the first time at the Hero World Challenge—much like Woods—since undergoing surgery after his brief time at Augusta National.

"Kind of a golfer's worst nightmare is feeling your back giving out on the driving range at Augusta 30 minutes before your tee time," said Zalatoris, who had a microdiscectomy performed two days later. "It's been a patience game. It's been a grind. I had a lot of really good advice from guys that have had to go through the same thing and all of them said take your time, no one's ever come back from an injury taking too long."

In a return to competitive golf, Will Zalatoris finished 20th in the 20-man field in the Bahamas :: David Cannon/Getty Images

Zalatoris had the misfortune of experiencing issues just after winning his first PGA Tour title at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. A week later, he withdrew from the BMW Championship, missed the Presidents Cup and didn’t play at all in the fall. He came back at the Sentry in January.

"When I came back in January I still didn't really feel 100 percent," Zalatoris said. “ I tried probably to change a little too much in what I was doing and kind of got away from my DNA of who I am as a golfer."

Zalatoris, who was ranked seventh in the world according to the Official World Golf Ranking when 2023 began, managed to play seven times, with a fourth-place finish at the Genesis Invitational his best. He played the Players Championship and the WGC-Match Play before withdrawing at the Masters.

"I think when I go from ramping up to Augusta, hurt my back on Thursday and then Saturday I'm already having surgery, it's a big swing of emotions," Zalatoris said. “I think the first five, six weeks was probably the hardest.

"It was just such a slow buildup. One of the more frustrating things was actually I was told I can't play more than three days in a row. I think this was at maybe month five. I had shot like 63-65-64 at home and I was like the last thing I want to do is not play golf tomorrow, especially with the months that I had leading up to that."

Perhaps it should not have come as a surprise that Zalatoris finished last in the field at the Hero. He opened with a score of 81 and had a 79 on Saturday. He spoke about resisting the urge to come back to play in the fall, and that now seems a prudent decision.

As Woods can attest, a microdiscectomy—which is meant to address nerve damage around the a disk—is no joke. There is a recovery period and then all the issues of ramping up your game.

Zalatoris will be back in January and—now ranked 33rd in the world—will resume the process of getting back among the elite players.