In 2022, Will Zalatoris he looked like a man on the verge of something special. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: approach, third overall in Strokes Gained: total, and had just broken through for his first PGA Tour win at the FedEx St. Louis Championship.
Then, the next week, he retired with a herniated disc. What followed was three years, two microdiscectomies and, eventually, synthetic disc replacement surgery that literally made him taller. He lost half an inch of height during that stretch and gained back three-quarters of an inch after the procedure.
His story is a cautionary tale because the swing motion that contributed to his injury is more common than you might think.
What happened to Will Zalatoris’ back
To understand the injury, you need to understand a movement called “side bending.” It is the “reverse C” shape that is formed in the upper body during the landing. It is a natural and necessary part of a good golf swing. Think of it like salt in a recipe: too little and the swing falls, too much and things start to break down.
Side bending occurs because the lower body moves toward the target ahead of the upper body as the club approaches impact. That gap between the upper and lower body tilts the torso back, creating shape. Done right, it helps golfers hit the driver and generate power. Doing so compresses the L4 and L5 discs in the lower spine.
The L4 and L5 discs have relatively little muscle or bone protecting them.
To make matters worse, Zalatoris had another tricky set-up problem: a covered, arched lower back. This extension now closes the cheekbones along the lower spine. Add a significant right side bend on top of it and you’re closing the same knots from two directions simultaneously.
The position of his arm made it worse. With his arms traveling too vertically in the backbend, he had to make a huge split-second side turn on the way down just to shallow club and make strong contacts.
Zalatoris is talented and athletic enough to pull it off, and he became one of the best ball-strikers on Tour in doing so. But the physical damage was inevitable.
What changed
Working with longtime swing coach Troy Denton and visiting the Titleist Performance Institute, Zalatoris made two relatively small but significant adjustments.
First, they addressed his stance in the address. The arched lower back became a straighter, more neutral back. This helped smooth things over before he started pacing.
Second, they moved his arms a little more around his body in the backbend instead of straight up. It was only a matter of inches. From that new position, he no longer needed to create excessive lateral spin on the downstroke to find the ball. In his words, it became “a lot more rotational and a lot more horizontal.”
After his disc replacement surgery in 2025, he described feeling: “The stability in my back is much better.” He compared his previous microdisctomies to removing a broken Jenga piece. The fragment was gone, but the tower was still damaged. Synthetic discs finally addressed the root of the problem.
Could this happen to you?
Excessive lateral bending tends to be noted as a problem for elite and youth players—people with a lot of flexibility who can drive their lower body aggressively. But the underlying risk factors appear in all types of players.
Here’s what you should see.
- Your arms go too vertical in the backswing. The higher the arms travel straight up, the more side bend you will need to create on the way down to swing the club.
- You arch your lower back at address. Standing “straight” often means overextending the lumbar spine. The closed-lock position under load is a problem on its own, let alone combined with lateral bending.
- Lower back hurts after a round, especially in cold weather. Stiffness and pain that worsens in cold conditions or during long practice sessions can be an early sign of disc stress.
- You feel like you are working hard to hit the ball. Zalatoris described swinging “so hard” that a short iron session left him exhausted. Effortless power and back health tend to go together.
If any of this sounds familiar, work on a more neutral spine at address. Experiment with letting your arms swing a little more around your body on the backswing, rather than straight up. And if back pain is a recurring issue, get a proper range of motion evaluation.
Zalatoris says he expects to feel better at 30 to 35 than he did at 25 to 30. That’s a remarkable result — but a much harder road than it needed to be.
