Will Zalatoris went low in his first PGA Tour round in about eight months.
Zalatoris fired a 7-under 65 Thursday at La Quinta Country Club, one of three venues for The American Express, Zalatoris’ first Tour start since missing the cut at the PGA Championship last May and subsequent disc replacement surgery. The opening round left Zalatoris three shots back of leaders Min Woo Lee and Pierceson Coody, though they both played the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West, which played the easiest on Thursday.
Tying for the third-best round at LQCC, which doesn’t have ShotLink, Zalatoris got off to a slow start, 1 over through his first five holes after a bogey at the par-4 14th. But he quickly bounced back with birdies at Nos. 15, 17 and 18. He added five more birdies coming in.
Zalatoris had to withdraw from the 2022 BMW Championship with a back injury and didn’t return again until The Sentry the next season. He played just a handful of events before pulling out of the Masters and undergoing a microdiscectomy in April 2023. He called this latest recovery process much easier than his previous stints. He went eight weeks with basically no movement, then started putting, chipping and eventually being full-go by Week 16 and later returning to competition at the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Golf Challenge, where he placed solo 15th last month.
“This is the first time I would say in four years that I haven’t been able to not have any sciatica down my legs,” Zalatoris said earlier this week. “… This time around I’m pushing myself in the gym harder than I ever have. I’m able to do the things that I haven’t been able to do for years.”
Swing-wise, Zalatoris made some changes, most notably making less of a dive at the ball, to alleviate the pressure on his lower back. Mentally, Zalatoris has little trepidation about his future after leaving last year’s PGA not knowing if, at just 28 years old, he’d played his last tournament. His surgeon even said after this surgery, “I’m not going to see you for 20 years.”
“They have run three million cycles on these disks, and they haven’t broke ‘em,” added Zalatoris, who said those two re-herniated discs went from 3 and 4 millimeters thick to 11 each.
Zalatoris is playing this season on a major medical extension and is not exempt into the signature events. Sure, he will likely procure a sponsor invite or two, but there are no guarantees – unless he strings together more rounds like Thursday.
“I’ll have to pick some spots this year that maybe I don’t usually play, but that’s OK,” Zalatoris said. “I know that I’m able to play every single week now compared to what I’ve had to do in the past.”