{"id":437705,"date":"2026-03-05T03:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437705"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:12:20","slug":"will-zalatoris-staying-positive-despite-health-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/will-zalatoris-staying-positive-despite-health-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Zalatoris Staying Positive Despite Health Struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the 2025 season, a few stars were out due to injuries.\u00a0 Tiger Woods had to sit out for the season due to a torn Achilles tendon.\u00a0 He\u2019s still in recovery at the time of writing, but is planning on making a return this season<\/a>.\u00a0 Currently, Will Zalatoris is wrestling with his own injury that has been off and on for a few years now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will Zalatoris\u2019 Injuries<\/span><\/h2>\n

Since 2022, Zalatoris has struggled with a back injury that has flared up over the years.\u00a0 He has had to withdraw from three events, but had to sit out for a total of twenty non-consecutive months.\u00a0 Zalatoris spent that time off in recovery and undergoing corrective surgeries<\/a>.\u00a0 This has led to him falling in the OWGR ranking from the top 10 to outside the top 250.\u00a0 During the Cognizant Classic, he was one of the withdrawals,<\/a> but his was due to an ankle injury and not his back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zalatoris On His Injuries<\/span><\/h2>\n

From an outside perspective, Zalatoris\u2019 situation seems dire for his career.\u00a0 However, Zalatoris is looking on the positive side of his injuries and is fairly hopeful for the future.\u00a0 Rather than looking at how the injuries have affected his career, he\u2019s looking at how he has progressed over the years.\u00a0 In an interview with Golf Channel,<\/a> he has described how, for the first time in four years, he\u2019s not feeling any sciatica in his legs, a nerve pain.\u00a0 He\u2019s even using examples like Tiger Woods as a model for his recovery.\u00a0 Ahead of the Cognizant Classic, Zolatoris was describing how he was glad that the pains were done.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great because I\u2019m able to go week in, week out, and now it\u2019s just about executing,\u201d Zalatoris said. \u201cI think the part that\u2019s fun about this now is the three years of kind of going through all this are over. The sciatica, the leg weakness, like I haven\u2019t had any of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Zalatoris has gone through some mental struggles, mainly because these injuries have been almost back-to-back over the years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou go through (a back surgery) once, that\u2019s fine \u2026 \u2018Hey, I\u2019m still a great player, I\u2019ve had a couple of great finishes, a top 10 in a major,’\u201d Zalatoris said. \u201cBut then you go through it again. And that\u2019s where the mental side of it is very hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Comeback In The Future?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Will Zalatoris has been through a lot in just the past four years.\u00a0 The physical and mental strain of one injury and surgery is enough as is, but multiple over just a few short years is another beast altogether.\u00a0 Yet he\u2019s keeping his head up and looking forward.\u00a0 He\u2019s still young, and a comeback for him is still possible, despite his most recent surgery.\u00a0 Zalatoris has had a rough go, and his career has taken a major hit, but it is still very much possible for him to bounce back from it.\u00a0 He has had some good games during the times when he came back, ending up in the top 10 for three events.\u00a0 He may even make it back into the top 10 on the OWGR.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Abe Arredondo-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the 2025 season, a few stars were out due to injuries.\u00a0 Tiger Woods had to sit out for the season due to a torn Achilles tendon.\u00a0 He\u2019s still in recovery at the time of writing, but is planning on making a return this season.\u00a0 Currently, Will Zalatoris is wrestling with his own injury that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[263,166],"class_list":["post-437705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-cognizant-classic","tag-will-zalatoris"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437707,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437705\/revisions\/437707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}