Gone are the days of five-hour grind sessions on the range for Will Zalatoris.
Three back surgeries before his 30th birthday has had him recalibrate routines for warming up and improving his game.
“I’m still 29, I still have some spunk in me,” he told reporters after shooting a 5-under 67 in the opening round of the Valero Texas Open on Thursday. “But I still feel like a 29-year-old who’s had three back surgeries for sure.”
The 2022 FedEx St. Jude champion is off to his best start on Tour this season, taking advantage of wind-less conditions and some early morning rain at TPC San Antonio. He sits two shot off clubhouse leader Mark Hubbard who edged out Tony Finau, Davis Thompson, Andrew Putnam and Robert MacIntyre late Thursday.
Tony Finau and Davis Thompson share the clubhouse lead following matching 66s in the first round of the Valero Texas Open.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) April 2, 2026
It marks Finau's second-best score in 23 career rounds at TPC San Antonio (best: 65, 2017/R2)
For Thompson, it ties his second-lowest 18-hole score this…
The problem for Zalatoris is reps. He’s not eclipsed double digits in the number of rounds played on Tour this season.
Besides the back pain, Zalatoris has been reeling from an injury to his left ankle that has limited him to a pair of missed cuts at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January and last week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open. He finished T-18 at The American Express in the Coachella Valley in his season debut.
“It’s all related to the back,” he said during his post-round interview in San Antonio. “It was basically the nerve that, the sciatic nerve going down —- basically from the ankle down I couldn’t feel anything.”
“The reality is that I’m 10 months removed from basically having my back reconstructed,” he added. “If I’m complaining about just a little thing here and there, I’ll still take it. The patience game is obviously brutal because it’s even like a day like today, where I make eight birdies, and we’re still talking about it. But that’s been my last three years.”
Zalatoris, who finished runner-up at the 2021 Masters, said the ankle and back woes pale in comparison to the mental hurdles of playing on a medical exemption this season.
Even though he’s from the Lone Star State, he’s opted out of this event in the past to gain a week of rest ahead of playing Augusta National.
“The part that’s hard, too, is when you’re on a major medical, you don’t get to really pick your tournaments,” Zalatoris explained.
He’s vying for the last spot in the Masters field this week.
Something the time off has made him relish the possibility of even more.
Zalatoris said there’s a lot of work ahead of him this week — and in general — but rounds like the one he experienced Thursday leave him believing all the possibilities are still there for his game. Green jacket included.
“After everything that I’ve kind of gone through, I’m just glad that I’m able to do this. There were a few moments that I thought I was done, just considering the pain that I was in day to day,” he admitted. “But the fact that I’m able to come out and do this again and stripe it the way I did ... it’s still really encouraging.
“It’s kind of been a blessing, too, having this time off and not be able to hit balls because I think everybody knows I needed to work on my putting, and that’s all I’ve done for basically the last two years and how to learn to use the broomstick and it’s paid off.”