Will Zalatoris Returns to PGA Tour: From Wondering if He Was Finished to Comeback Story
Will Zalatoris can act—or so he discovered while filming a cameo for the “Happy Gilmore” sequel over the summer. “Never been in a drama class in my life,” he insists, but there he was, delivering lines, choking someone, getting tackled. The Hollywood experience earned laughs and added another dimension to the young star’s public persona.
But Zalatoris’s most convincing acting performance didn’t happen on a movie set. It occurred at the 2022 U.S. Open, where he masterfully concealed excruciating pain while contending for his first major championship—a performance that foreshadowed years of struggle with back issues that would threaten to end his career before it truly began.
The Hidden Pain of Contention
During the 2022 U.S. Open final round, Zalatoris entered tied for the lead and received the standard contender treatment: camera crews capturing his arrival, parking lot strut, and pre-round preparation. What viewers didn’t know was that every step represented an act of willpower over physical agony.
“The second your car pulls in, you have a camera right there once you get out,” Zalatoris recalled. “And I remember trying to hide kind of my limp heading into the last round. Just because of how stiff I was and how locked up my back was. And I was still able to go out and possibly win a major.”
He nearly did. A 15-footer that would’ve tied him for the lead on the 72nd hole brushed past the left edge, and Matt Fitzpatrick claimed victory. But the what-ifs remain: What if Zalatoris hadn’t been hurt? What if his back cooperated? What if he’d been physically capable of fully executing under championship pressure?
The Spiral: Surgeries, Withdrawals, and Doubt
That 2022 U.S. Open performance foreshadowed more pain to come—much more. Surgeries followed. Plural. Withdrawals mounted. Plural. Returns happened. Plural. Each time carrying hope that this fix would be the permanent solution, only to have pain and limitation return.
The latest comeback begins Thursday when Zalatoris tees off at the American Express tournament, his second start since undergoing a procedure last May and his first on the PGA Tour. But this return feels different—because it physically is different.
His surgery seven months ago was a full disc replacement. A previous 2023 procedure had been a microdiscectomy after herniated discs. The distinction matters enormously: Zalatoris believes the latest work solves all his issues rather than merely addressing symptoms while leaving root causes unresolved.
The Decision: New Discs at 29
Full disc replacement surgery sounds dramatic—and unsettling. Zalatoris is just 29 years old. That seems extraordinarily young for such extensive spinal intervention. But chronic pain and career uncertainty created an impossible situation requiring dramatic action.
Zalatoris found confidence in knowing the procedure had been performed successfully on other athletes: “Finally I said, look, let’s go for it, we’ve got the technology, we’ve been putting it in long-drive guys, we’ve been putting it in hockey players, it’s been saving guys’ careers.”
A week after missing the cut at the 2023 PGA Championship, surgeons performed the work. Then began the careful, gradual process of physical reconstruction:
- Eight weeks post-surgery: Putting
- Ten weeks post-surgery: Chipping
- Fifteen weeks post-surgery: Doctor cleared for full play
Now, Zalatoris can’t stop playing. Thirty-six holes? Fine. Back-to-back days of 36? No problem. Gym work? Bring it on. All of the above? All good.
“I’m able to do the things that I haven’t been able to do for years,” he said. “So I know that’s kind of a weird thing to say at 29 years old, but obviously you know what I’ve been through for the last three, four, five years.”
The Track Record: Proof of Potential
Zalatoris’s optimism about his return isn’t based on wishful thinking. His resume demonstrates exactly what he’s capable of when healthy—or even when playing through pain, as he did at the 2022 U.S. Open.
Over 10 majors from 2020 through 2022, Zalatoris was undeniably a player to watch, securing six top-10 finishes including the runner-up at the 2022 U.S. Open. He earned PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors in 2021, validating his arrival among golf’s elite.
In August 2022, he captured his first PGA Tour victory, leading both the PGA Tour’s season-long points race and the DP World Tour’s standings. Everything pointed toward a career trajectory that would make him a perennial contender and multiple major champion.
Then his body betrayed him.
The Dark Period: When Doubts Consumed Everything
A week after his 2022 victory, Zalatoris withdrew from the BMW Championship because of back pain. He withdrew again at the 2023 Masters before undergoing his microdiscectomy. He returned late that year and played about a year and a half before undergoing the latest, more extensive procedure.
At that point, doubt consumed everything.
“Is this something — even though the surgeon says, hey, I’m not going to see you for 20 years — is this true?” Zalatoris wondered. “The little things that of course always creep into your mind…”
“The mental side of it was very tough. Leaving the PGA not knowing if that was going to be my last professional golf tournament, given all the issues that I had had. But I would say that it only just gives you more appreciation when you come back out here.”
That appreciation now fuels his return, transforming what could be bitterness about lost time into gratitude for another opportunity.
The Swing Rebuild: Understanding the Body
Time away from competition allowed Zalatoris to rework his swing mechanics with fresh perspective about his physical capabilities and limitations.
“A lot of it is actually trying to understand my body a little bit better in terms of just how I rotate around my body,” he explained. “A lot of people always were pretty critical of my posture, how much I was kind of diving at the ball. The difference was is that I would say over the last year I did a very good job of managing it, but this time around there’s no management.”
No management. Those words carry enormous significance. Instead of constantly monitoring, protecting, and working around back limitations, Zalatoris can now swing freely, trusting his reconstructed spine to handle the stress and torque that elite golf demands.
Critics who questioned his posture and mechanics may have been observing compensations his body made to protect an already compromised back. Now, without those constraints, he can rebuild his swing around proper mechanics rather than pain avoidance.
The Mental Reset: Productive Time Away
During his recovery, Zalatoris watched golf selectively—the Ryder Cup, majors, tournaments where friends were contending. He didn’t consume every event obsessively because he couldn’t participate.
He played casual golf, though. One- and two-dollar games with friends. Low-stakes fun that reminded him why he fell in love with the game originally, before careers and rankings and physical limitations complicated everything.
He also explored: “Last fall I made a conscious effort of, once I was able to play 18, go play a bunch of new golf courses, go have some fun.”
But perhaps most importantly, Zalatoris avoided the trap that consumed so much of his pre-surgery time.
“I’m not at home hitting a million golf balls, trying to figure out my golf swing when in reality I had a compromised back.”
This realization crystallizes why he’s optimistic now. All those hours of practice, all those swing changes, all that effort to diagnose and fix mechanical issues—much of it was treating symptoms rather than addressing the root cause. His back was broken. No amount of swing work could fix broken hardware.
What to Expect Thursday and Beyond
Managing expectations for Zalatoris’s return requires acknowledging both his elite potential and the uncertainty inherent in back injuries. Backs are more fickle than even golf—pain can appear seemingly from nowhere, linger unpredictably, and resist even the best medical interventions.
Patience will be required from both Zalatoris and his fans. Maybe he contends this week. Maybe he makes the cut and shows rust. Maybe he builds toward April and Augusta—symbolic timing given he withdrew from there three years ago.
Or maybe we see him contend again at a U.S. Open, completing the story that started with that masked limp in 2022. That would provide narrative symmetry and competitive finality, though Zalatoris would gladly take victory over symbolism.
“I still am that same kid from 2022,” he insists. “I just have a lot more appreciation for where I’m at.”
The Broader Context: Golf's Injury Challenges
Zalatoris’s story highlights modern golf’s physical demands and the toll they take on bodies. The sport’s biomechanical violence—violent hip rotation, extreme spinal stress, repeated asymmetric loading—creates injury patterns that wouldn’t occur in normal daily life.
Players like Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, and now Zalatoris demonstrate that elite golf extracts physical costs that sometimes require dramatic medical intervention. As equipment allows greater ball speeds and players pursue every possible yard of distance, these injury patterns may become more common rather than rare exceptions.
According to the PGA Tour’s injury research, back problems represent the most common injury category among tour professionals, accounting for approximately 24% of all time lost to injury. Zalatoris’s experience, while extreme in requiring surgical intervention, reflects a broader pattern affecting the professional game.
The Inspiration Factor
Regardless of competitive results, Zalatoris’s return itself inspires. His willingness to undergo major surgery, commit to extensive rehabilitation, and trust his reconstructed body enough to compete again at golf’s highest level demonstrates courage beyond what most people will ever require in their lives.
For amateur golfers dealing with their own back issues—the weekend warriors whose backs ache after 18 holes, the senior golfers managing chronic pain—Zalatoris’s story offers both hope and realistic perspective. Medical solutions exist, but they require commitment, patience, and sometimes courage to pursue.
Conclusion: A Story Still Being Written
Will Zalatoris’s return to the PGA Tour this Thursday represents a new chapter in a career narrative that’s already contained dramatic highs and crushing lows. His journey from near-major-champion to wondering if he was finished to reconstructed comeback story demonstrates both golf’s physical demands and the human spirit’s resilience.
The acting skill he discovered filming “Happy Gilmore” pales compared to the performance he delivered at the 2022 U.S. Open, masking crippling pain while contending for championship glory. But now, perhaps, he won’t need to act anymore. With new discs replacing damaged ones, with a reworked swing built around proper mechanics instead of pain avoidance, with appreciation replacing frustration, Zalatoris returns ready to write the next chapters of his story.
Whether those chapters include major championships, consistent contention, or simply the joy of competing pain-free remains to be seen. But for Zalatoris, being back on tour with legitimate hope rather than desperate management represents victory itself. Everything else—wins, majors, rankings—those are bonuses for someone who wondered just months ago if his professional career was over.
“I just have a lot more appreciation for where I’m at,” he said. That appreciation, combined with elite talent and a finally cooperative body, might be exactly the formula needed to transform potential into sustained excellence.
The curtain rises Thursday in La Quinta. The actor returns to his real stage. And this time, Will Zalatoris won’t be acting—he’ll be competing, pain-free and grateful for another opportunity to show what he can accomplish when his body allows his talent to flourish.