Will Zalatoris returns to competition after nine months with revamped swing, competitive juices flowing

HONOLULU – Some take the holiday season to unplug. For Will Zalatoris, it was a competitive ramp-up.

Zalatoris played an estimated 20 rounds of golf between the Hero World Challenge and this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, where he’ll make his first official TOUR start since last March.

Playing partners ranged from Jordan Spieth to Tony Romo to incoming TOUR rookies Pierceson Coody and Parker Coody, twins whom he has known since they were 14 or 15. The competitive juices came back as his anticipation for the return continued to build. He’s here – and he’s ready.

“I’ve had my favorite thing on earth taken from me for eight months,” Zalatoris said Tuesday. “Looking at the macro instead of the micro has given me a lot better perspective.”

Zalatoris withdrew from last year’s Masters just before his Thursday tee time, and he was on the operating table just 48 hours later, undergoing a microdiscectomy. After suffering a herniated disc the prior August and accelerating his return timetable too quickly, he promised not to make the same mistakes. He didn’t swing a club for a few months, and he held off from playing The RSM Classic in November despite the surgeon’s go-ahead.

After a start-and-stop cadence for the past year and a half, the Sony Open marks a rebirth of sorts for Zalatoris, both in his swing and competitive mindset. He has missed the smaller things of TOUR life, quipping Tuesday that he even missed rain delays.

“I don’t know who told it to me, but injuries are 80% mental and 20% physical,” Zalatoris said. “I played probably too much in ‘21; maybe a little too much in ’22. … It takes a lot out of you. I got kind of a mental freshness and better take of it now. … Not getting stuck on those bad weeks and getting back into the rhythm week-in, week-out, I think is something I'm really looking forward to.”

The Wake Forest alum – he completed his degree during last year’s injury hiatus – finished 20th in the 20-player field at the Hero World Challenge in December, nine strokes back of the next closest finisher. That was more of a knock-the-rust-off proposition, though. He knew there would be trial and error.

With a steady stream of holiday-season money games back home in Dallas – at courses ranging from Maridoe Golf Club to Dallas National to Brook Hollow – the sharpness returned.

“Making a 20-footer on 18 a couple times … stuff like that where it’s kind of fun to kind of throw a little dagger in there and makes you feel good before you go have lunch,” Zalatoris said. “Just the pressure simulation that I missed. I can practice as much as I want and try to simulate that pressure on the practice putting green or driving range and chipping green, but there is nothing like it compared to competing against guys when I can go shoot 67 and be the high scorer in the group when you're playing against some of the best players in the world every day in Dallas.”

The Sony Open will be a worthy test of his competitive edge. Waialae Country Club is a tree-lined track with doglegs in both directions, requiring multiple shot shapes and clubs off the tee. Soft conditions at Waialae can bring low scores – Honolulu was doused with heavy rains on Monday evening – but you can’t fake it around this venerable track.

Zalatoris, 27, has revamped his swing for consistency and sustainability. Rather than changing motor patterns, he said, the movement is less variable. While striving to minimize concrete expectations, he’s confident that strong results will follow.

“I had the big C at the finish,” Zalatoris said of his previous swing. “I had really high hands. The way I would come down with the club is create the reverse C coming down to the ball.

“Now I'm more rotary, more horizontal. It's simpler, so easier to fix. For me, one week I would have to play a cut, one week play a draw, and time it up with my hands. Now I feel it's more bigger muscles.”

Zalatoris played a practice round Tuesday morning with Pierceson Coody, set for his first start as a member (Parker Coody survived a morning playoff at the Monday qualifier and would perhaps join for the second nine), and veteran Charley Hoffman, who has made 491 career PGA TOUR starts. Zalatoris’ career arc straddles the middle – his myriad accomplishments (three runner-up finishes in majors, 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship champion) denote veteran status. After a nine-month hiatus from the TOUR, though, he returns with a rookie’s wide-eyed energy.

The group’s conversation was loose – sharing updates on mutual friends, discussing recent updates at the Titleist Performance Institute, and mixing in some movie references.

“Chip, I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew,” Zalatoris quipped as he walked from the fifth green to the sixth tee, referencing “The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

He wasn’t drinking a soda, but his energy would suggest he might have been. He’s back on TOUR, after all.