Bigger Will Zalatoris kicks off big goals for 2025 at The Sentry

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Will Zalatoris isn’t the only person to begin the new year staring at a larger number on the scale, but the source of his weight gain is different than most.

Zalatoris has put on 20 pounds of muscle since last year’s FedExCup Playoffs. His clothes aren’t bursting at the seams, but he hopes that his transformation will end the social-media comments about his “22-inch waist.”

Vanity wasn’t the inspiration for him to pack on the pounds, however. Longevity was. Zalatoris hasn’t been the same since the back injury that felled him in the 2022 FedExCup Playoffs, a week after he earned his first PGA TOUR win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Zalatoris was leading the FedExCup and ranked in the top 10 of the world when he had to withdraw from the 2022 BMW Championship because of a herniated disk in his back. Success has come in fits since as he’s tried to manage the pain and recover from the back surgery that followed in April 2023.

The added strength is intended to give Zalatoris the stability that will take the strain off his spine. It will also allow him to hit the ball at his usual distance with less effort. Zalatoris was one of the TOUR’s longest hitters during his best years even though he weighed little more than 160 pounds. The all-out effort it required, however, was detrimental to his health. He’s now around 180 pounds.

“I really wanted to make sure that I'm setting myself up for the next seven, eight years, because right now at 28 years old, this is ‘go time,’” said Zalatoris. He’s off to a good start with his new physique, starting the 2025 season with an 8-under 65 to sit a shot off the lead after The Sentry’s opening round.

Zalatoris was a consistent contender in majors before the injury. He was runner-up at both the 2022 PGA Championship and U.S. Open, as well as the 2021 Masters. He finished in the top 10 in six of nine majors from 2020-22.

He played just eight events in 2023 before being forced to withdraw moments before his opening tee time at the Masters, though. A microdiscectomy followed shortly after. He didn’t tee it up again until Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in December, finishing last by nine shots.

His 2024 season got off to a promising start, though, with a runner-up at The Genesis Invitational in February and T4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard a month later. A T9 finish at the Masters in April was his final top-10 of the season, though.

Being forced to withdraw from the Rocket Mortgage Classic in June because of a hip injury made him realize that something needed to change. He followed with three consecutive missed cuts.

“Having to get cortisone shots just to get by was a lot,” Zalatoris said. “I didn't really want to spend the rest of my career doing that.”

Zalatoris likes to play multiple weeks in a row to peak for key events, but last year he found that his swing speed would decrease and he would wear down as the weeks went by. He needed to limit his practice time to let his back recuperate, which made it hard to hang with the best players in the world.

Zalatoris played just twice after last year’s FedExCup Playoffs, using the offseason to work on his body instead of grinding away on the driving range. It has him feeling fresher at the start of the new season, he said.

He consumed approximately 200 grams of protein per day, with no more than 40 per sitting, and he needed to eat 4,500 calories at least three times per week. The other days he consumed approximately 3,000.

“It was a lot of protein, a lot of working out, you know, eating until I felt like I was full and then eating some more,” he said, “but I needed to do it.”

One round into 2025, it’s paying off.