The injury bug is back for Will Zalatoris.
The talented PGA Tour star, who first injured his back in 2022 and has struggled to stay healthy since, is once again bowing out early from an event, this time at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Zalatoris completed eight holes in his third round Saturday, making three bogeys, a double an two birdies (one coming on his final hole), before he shook hands with playing partners Nick Dunlap and Dylan Wu and retired from the event. He was four under for the tournament at the time after opening with a 66 Thursday.
CBS’ Amanda Ballionis reported on the network’s broadcast of the third round that Zalatoris felt a “pop” in his hip, stressing it was Zalatoris’ “good” hip. His “bad” hip was the one near his two herniated disks that caused him to undergo a microdiscectomy procedure in April 2023 after withdrawing from the Masters.
Zalatoris also told Ballionis that playing in his fourth event in as many weeks “finally caught up with him.”
“Will experienced some discomfort after a swing today and, out of utmost precaution, made the tough decision to withdraw,” Zalatoris’ manager Allen Hobbs said in a statement released by the PGA Tour. “It’s important that he listens to his body and gets some rest. He hates to withdraw from the Rocket Mortgage Classic and looks forward to getting back out on the course soon.”
Zalatoris is in the midst of his second comeback season after playing just seven events before undergoing season-ending surgery in 2023. He was originally hurt at the 2022 BMW Championship, the week after his breakthrough win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
How Will Zalatoris and Tiger Woods have bonded over hardship
After taking time off to rehab and make swing changes to alleviate pressure on his back, Zalatoris came back at the 2023 Sentry, where he finished T11. He recorded one top-10 before the April surgery and didn’t return until last December’s Hero World Challenge.
The 2024 version of Zalatoris overhauled his swing again to try and shake the injury risk and had seemed to be successful thus far. He notched an emotional runner-up at the Genesis Invitational in February and top-10s at both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Masters.
As of late, while he had yet to withdraw from a tournament this season, Zalatoris’ game had been betraying him a bit. Since Augusta, he hasn’t finished better than T41 and missed the cut at both the Zurich Classic team event and the U.S. Open.
