'Pain-free' Zalatoris targeting return to PGA TOUR this fall
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Will Zalatoris is targeting a return to competitive golf in September after undergoing successful back surgery earlier this spring.
Zalatoris shared an update on ESPN’s alternative broadcast of the PGA Championship Friday morning, adding that he feels pain-free for the first time in two years.
"No headaches, no leg pain,” Zalatoris said. “This is the best I've felt—I feel great.”
Zalatoris was near the top of the golf world this time a year ago. He finished runner-up to Justin Thomas at last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills, losing in a three-hole playoff. He would go on to finish runner-up again at the U.S Open last June. He won his first PGA TOUR event later in the summer at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but the injury problems popped up shortly after.
He injured himself at the BMW Championship and missed the TOUR Championship and the Presidents Cup. He made his return at the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January and finished T11. However he finished inside the top-30 in just one of his next seven events. He withdrew from the Masters because of the back injury and announced he underwent a successful microdiscectomy in April.
“As much as I hate not being able to play the rest of the season, I am happy that I am already seeing the benefits of the procedure,” Zalatoris said in a statement shortly following the surgery.
A September return puts the No. 9 player in the world on track to play in the FedExCup Fall.