Zalatoris back in form after injury, gained new friend in Woods

AUGUSTA -- One of the themes heading into last year's Masters Tournament was that anything could happen.

It was hard to pick a winner out of a field with so many players in good form, and with so many of the game's top-ranked stars riding momentum into Augusta National Golf Club.

One of those players never got the chance to try to go toe-to-toe with Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka and the rest of the field.

Will Zalatoris was the eighth-ranked player in the world with two top-10 finishes, including a runner-up in 2021 as a rookie, in two previous Masters appearances. The then-26-year-old already had six top-10s in 10 starts in majors, surging to the brink of stardom as one of golf's best when the stakes are highest.

He was hitting range balls before his Thursday morning tee time, just loosening up with some iron swings, when he felt a jarring sensation in his back - and he knew exactly what it was. A previously-existing - but not previously divulged - back injury was now well beyond the grit-through-it stage, forcing Zalatoris to withdraw that morning.

Surgery followed two days later, followed by seventh months of missed starts. During his rehab he made a new friend, one who knows all too well about back surgeries, recovery time and the frustration that comes when an athlete's body breaks down.

That new friend was Tiger Woods, and the two played nine holes together during Monday's practice round to begin preparations for this week's Masters a year after both had to withdraw.

"Yeah, my mom actually reminded me this is one year to the day from the surgery, so kind of a fun day to kind of come back and play, and play nine holes with Tiger this morning, a guy who has really helped me a lot, I guess, with the rehab of coming back from my surgery," Zalatoris said. "So it's always special to be here, but obviously given the last year that I've had it was a very special day."

Zalatoris had been around Woods before, whether at tournaments or a charity event here and there, but they never really had anything in common to have built a bond. 

That all changed when he hurt his back - Woods has had the same injury, and Zalatoris said he had the same surgeons and medical team as Woods did. In a way, that medical team ended up including Woods, who checked up on Zalatoris periodically throughout his rehab to see where he was feeling at particular landmarks during the process.

That helped Zalatoris learn more about what he was facing, and he also had to learn that a 12-week recovery period wasn't necessarily going to be 12 weeks - especially for the back, considering how a bad mattress or hard sneeze can derail a golf swing. 

Zalatoris said it took about seven months to truly feel 100% again, and he's had some strong finishes early in the year to climb back from No. 46 to 31 in the world ranking. 

Now he's ready to tee it up at Augusta National, where in eight competitive rounds he has a scoring average of 70.5. That's a good start, albeit a small sample size, to his Masters career, and Monday he got a chance to learn from one of the best to ever stroll the grounds at Augusta National.

"I'm not willing to share them, but, yeah, I learned quite a few things," Zalatoris said. "A lot of things in the sense of kind of confirming strategy around this place. You know, the one in particular that I will say is most guys on (No.) 12 never really try to play to those right pins and keep it left. You know, keep it left of basically the lip of the front bunker. It's little things like that. Where really besides that, it was - he showed me a couple little things around the course. At the same time, I let him do what he does and I just kind of followed him around."