A year after missing Masters with back injury, Will Zalatoris back in action at Augusta National

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Will Zalatoris arrived at Augusta National’s practice putting green about 20 minutes before his Thursday tee time, spending the final minutes before beginning this year’s Masters by casually rolling putts and chatting with his longtime coach, Josh Gregory. Strong winds were buffeting Augusta National from a variety of directions, but Zalatoris wasn’t anxious before facing that challenge.

He turned to Gregory and said, “I never thought I would be at the Masters and not be really nervous. I’m just so happy and excited to be here.” Instead of anxiety, there was gratitude. For how far he had come. And for another opportunity.

A recurring back injury forced Zalatoris to withdraw minutes before his first-round tee time at last year’s Masters. He was on a flight home to Dallas within hours and on an operating table a couple of days later. A year ago, his career seemed in jeopardy. Now, a year later, he is not only playing at the course he loves more than any other. He is contending.

Zalatoris shot 70 in the first round of this year’s Masters, five behind leader Bryson DeChambeau but also inside the top 10 when play was suspended due to darkness. The first round was delayed by more than two hours by morning storms, and when play did begin the clouds were replaced in the sky by unpredictable breezes.

Zalatoris made seven pars on the first nine, as well as birdies on both par 5s. He bogeyed the 10th but made eagle at No. 13 after hitting his 194-yard second shot to 8 feet. He birdied the final par 5, No. 15, to reach 4-under par before making bogey on the final two holes.

“A year ago, I could feel the disk slipping and I was kind of hiding it from everybody, including members of my team,” he said. “It's hard not to be grateful being here, but I'm even more grateful now.”

Gregory said he knew something was wrong as soon as Zalatoris arrived at the putting green that day last year. Zalatoris’ face was ashen and he wasn’t in the mood for the usual pre-round chatter. Notoriously meticulous in his preparations, he gingerly moved through his warm-up routine before turning to Gregory and caddie Joel Stock and whispering, “I’m hurting.”

It took just one full swing with a 7-iron for Zalatoris to know he wouldn’t be competing at the Masters, the site of his breakthrough performance two years earlier. Months after competing full-time on the Korn Ferry Tour, Zalatoris finished second to Hideki Matsuyama in the 2021 Masters.

Zalatoris said he could feel the disk in his back slip, and the tingling run down his leg. “I knew immediately what it was,” he said Thursday. He went inside for treatment while Gregory headed to the first tee, tearfully telling Zalatoris’ family that Will wouldn’t be playing that day. Everyone knew what was next.

A player and his team usually avoid emotionally fraught topics right before a tee time, especially at a major, but Gregory felt a door had been opened after Zalatoris commented on his lack of pre-round jitters. Zalatoris seemed willing, even eager, to reminisce on all that the past year had entailed.

He was no doubt motivated to be back at the Masters. Gregory thought reflecting on a rehab process that has been pacing ahead of schedule could provide important perspective on a day where the inconsistent gusts and difficult conditions could easily lead to frustration. That’s why he decided to push the conversation a little deeper.

“What was your lowest point?” Gregory asked. “We’ve never really talked about it. When were you at rock bottom?”

Zalatoris described a scene months after his surgery when he was still in so much pain that he questioned if the procedure had been successful and if he could swing a club again. “He just wanted to live a quality life,” Gregory said. “Golf was just an added bonus.”

Zalatoris had already tried one ill-fated comeback from the two herniated disks that first afflicted him at the 2022 BMW Championship, just a week after he won his first PGA TOUR title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Zalatoris was the ninth-ranked player in the world. He’d finished in the top-10 in six of the previous eight majors, including runners-up at the 2022 PGA Championship and U.S. Open, but he had to sit out the final four months of the year for rest and rehab. He finished fourth in The Genesis Invitational last year in just his fourth event back, but then would tee it up just three more times before his ill-fated Masters.

This second comeback got off to an unceremonious start, with an 82 in the opening round of the Hero World Challenge in December. He finished in last place, nine shots behind the next-closest player. In addition to another long layoff, he had to get accustomed to a new broomstick putter and the swing changes that were necessary after the surgery. But he quickly progressed, finishing 13th at the Farmers Insurance Open before another strong showing at The Riviera Country Club, where he finished second behind Hideki Matsuyama. He was fourth in his next start, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard.

“He’s (four) months into his comeback and he’s already contended in two tournaments and he’s back at the Masters, a place he loves more than anything,” Gregory said. “This is house money.”

Gregory likes to use that phrase to inspire gratitude in his longtime student. They’ve used it since the days Zalatoris was Monday qualifying just to earn Korn Ferry Tour status and when he parlayed sponsor exemptions into a PGA TOUR card while his peers were stuck on the Korn Ferry Tour because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The phrase applied to the 2021 Masters, to which he was invited just months after he became a PGA TOUR player. Now it is appropriate again.

When you have nothing to lose, after all, you have nothing to fear.