One of golf’s brightest stars returns. In May, he wondered if it was over

Can Zalatoris act.

He says he couldn’t – “never been to a drama class in my life” – but there he was in the summer, the golfer with ball and club doing slapstick at one point for sequel to “Happy Gilmore”.. He had a few lines. He strangled a boy. He faced. Forget the green jacket. Give him the Golden Globe.

But did you see him at the 2022 US Open?

This is a tournament, of course. But Zalatori’s best work came there. Entering the final day tied for the lead, he took the day entering the finals tied for the lead FoRewoRdwhere, to set the mood, viewers at home watch contestants move cars into parking spaces, contestants unload luggage, and contestants move to the club as music plays and analysts analyze. And there was Zalatoris.

Disguising a limp. Pretending it was okay.

“The second your car gets in, you have a camera right there as soon as you get out,” he said. “And I remember trying to kind of hide my limp going into the last round, just because of how stiff I was and how tight my back was.

“And I was still able to go out and maybe win a major.”

four years ago, he almost didbut a 15-footer that would have tied for the lead on the 72nd hole went over the left side of the cup and Matt Fitzpatrick it was your winner. But what if Zalatoris hadn’t been hurt? What if his back cooperated? Or at least didn’t cripple him? Of course, we can’t know that. But we may soon learn what a healthy Zalatoris might look like. The ’22 Open foretold more pain to come. There were operations. Plural. There were withdrawals. Plural. There have been relapses. Plural. The last one comes on Thursday, when Zalatoris walks into the room American Express tourhis second start since undergoing the procedure last May, and his first on the PGA Tour.

He is hopeful, as he had been before, but this time he feels different, as he physically is. His surgery seven months ago was a total disc replacement; a 2023 procedure was a microdiscectomy after having herniated two discs. In other words, Zalatoris said he believes the latest work solves all of his issues, rather than removing just some of them. But new discs? It sounds disturbing. He is also only 29 years old. Seems like a lot of opening and closing to be done before 30. But Zalatoris said he knew the operation was done with others – “I finally said, look, let’s go for it, we have the technology, we’ve put it on the long-distance guys, we’ve put it on the hockey players, it’s saving them he said he lost the guys’ careers – a week ago”. Championship, job done.

Eight weeks later, he was coming.

A fortnight after that, he was falling apart.

After fifteen weeks, the doctor told him to play.

Now, Zalatoris cannot be stopped. Thirty six? Back days of 36? Working out at the gym? All of the above. And all good.

“I’m able to do things I haven’t been able to do for years,” he said. “So I know it’s a weird thing to say at 29, but obviously you know what I’ve been through in the last three, four, five years.”

However, his play was by no means poor in that stretch. Over 10 championships from 2020 to 2022, Zalatoris was a player, securing six top-10 finishes, including runner-up at the ’22 US Open and two others. He was the 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. Then, in August 2022, he won his first PGA Tour eventand he led both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour season-long points race. But the stops followed. “Everything from there turned to, can you play, can you make it?” he said. A week after his win, he withdrew from the BMW Championship due to his back, then he was WD’d in the 2023 Masters and underwent his microdiscectomy before returning later that year – and played about a year and a half until undergoing his last procedure.

That’s when doubt came in, he said.

He wondered if he could go on.

“Is that something — even though the surgeon says, hey, I’m not going to see you for 20 years — is that true?” Zalatoris said. “The little things that certainly always sink into your mind. …

“The mental side of it was very difficult. Leaving the PGA not knowing if it was going to be my last professional golf tournament, given all the problems I had. But I would say it just gives you more appreciation when you come back here.”

In his recent time away, he said he reworked his swing. (“A lot of them are actually trying to understand my body a little bit better in terms of how I roll around my body,” he said. “A lot of people were always pretty critical of my stance, how much I was diving on the ball. The difference was I’d say last year I did a pretty good job of managing it, but this time some said he didn’t just watch it.”) Ryder Cup. Directors. When friends were quarreling. However, he played. One and two dollar games. He also explored. “Last fall I made a conscious effort, once I was able to play 18,” he said, “go play a bunch of new golf courses, go have fun.”

But it’s what he didn’t do that makes him more optimistic.

“I’m not at home hitting a million golf balls, trying to figure out my golf swing,” Zalatoris said, “when in reality I had a compromised back.”

So what can you expect on Thursday?

Patience will be required. Rears are more unstable than even golf. The pain in that area is a bit like a fiddle – it comes seemingly out of nowhere, it hurts and it lasts. So things may take a while. Maybe Zalatoris claims. Maybe he makes the cut. Maybe he heads to April and Augusta. This would be symbolic. Three years ago, he retired from there.

Or maybe we see him compete again at the US Open. Where his acting career began.

This gives him some closure. However, this time he would win.

“I’m still the same kid from 2022,” he said.

“I just have a lot more appreciation for where I am.”

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