Well, it looks like our young golfing hopeful, Will Zalatoris, has decided to get serious about that pesky back of his. He's opting for some major surgery – a spinal fusion, to be precise – and it's happening by the end of the month. This will be his third big back operation since, what, 2023? It sounds like bringing out the heavy artillery, but when your back feels like a poorly assembled IKEA shelf, I guess you call in the professionals.
Zalatoris, bless his heart, has been powering through the last four years with the kind of grit you usually see in a documentary about Antarctic explorers. He says he hopes this surgery will "correct it," whatever "it" is by this point. He dropped this little nugget of news at a presser for the Austin Championship, an event he plans to play in before disappearing for a good long while to heal. It’s either incredibly brave, or maybe just a last hurrah, a dramatic operatic solo before the curtain closes on his season.
I remember when Zalatoris was just starting to make waves, looking like he’d snag every major and climb to the top of the rankings. He was even world No. 7 at one point. But his career has gone a bit like a bad soap opera, constantly interrupted by his own darn spine. That Masters performance in 2021, where he looked like he’d been playing for a century? Now it feels like a faded photograph.
He’s already had a microdiscectomy in 2023 and a disc replacement in 2025. This latest hiccup in 2026, where he managed a grand total of four PGA Tour starts before his back threw another tantrum, just highlights how rough pro golf can be on a body. Honestly, you have to wonder if our spines are just glorified coat hangers, constantly needing adjustment after we try to swing a club like a maniac.
The prognosis is grim: he's probably out for all of 2027. But Zalatoris, ever the optimist (or perhaps just stubborn), is already eyeing a comeback in 2028. This kind of persistence, even after all the ouchies, makes you think of Sisyphus. He’s definitely pushing that boulder up the hill, even if it keeps rolling back down. For now, the Austin Championship is his grand finale before another long stretch of recovery and, I’m sure, a lot of Netflix.