“I did a pretty deep dive” - Will Zalatoris says he fixed his swing taking stress off his back

Will Zalatoris is returning to the greens after a four-month hiatus due to an injury. The Sentry Tournament of Champions will be his first PGA Tour event in 138 days.

The 26-year-old had to withdraw from August's BMW Championship as he suffered from two herniated disks on his back.

Zalatoris won his first PGA Tour event in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. A week later, he was in the middle of the 5th Tee at Wilmington County Club, a PGA Tour physiotherapist trying to ease his pain but eventually had to withdraw as the pain went unbearable.

The unfortunate incident at the Tour Championship led Zalatoris to a premature end to the season, slipping from No. 3 to No. 30 in the FedEx Cup Standings.

Will Zalatoris is returning for the new season with the Kapalua event. The event, however, is a limited-field event having past champions and Tournament qualifiers. Sentry TOC is also one of the first elevated tournaments on the PGA Tour with an increased purse of $15 million.

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"No wonder I had a back issue": Will Zalatoris

Will Zalatoris got married in December (Image via Zalatoris Instagram)

Will Zalatoris, after having a lot of "missing out by close" last year, used his rehab time to focus on the minor modifications he felt he needed to make.

“Probably more than I think I ever wanted to. But the speed’s the same, everything feels really good,” Zalatoris said he felt good after rehab and he learnt a lot about his body.

According to the PGA Tour, Will Zalatoris is 6'2'' weighing around 175 pounds, so he's not the huge guy on the tour. He said that aside from July 2021, he mostly avoided any back issues in his career. However that wasn't like the current structural one but a muscular one.

“I did a pretty deep dive with Damon, my trainer, with Dr. Greg Rose, Dr. Duffy." Zalatoris explained, "...and we were checking all the boxes and it was just strictly a motor pattern thing, which is kind of a good thing and a bad thing, because when I was hitting the ball the way that I was, it’s hard to want to change anything, but at the same time, I actually saw some benefits.”

Zalatoris felt he needed a slight change in his swing to prevent any injury like this from happening again. He came to know that his back issues were due to his way of generating power. He said that he spent time with Dr. Rose, who is a doctor of Chiropractic at the Titleist Performance Institute.

They conducted an assessment of his body, including the pressure on his swing. The conclusion was that it was a motor pattern resulting from the strain on his back. He pushed his right side later than most players, leading to his spine tilting back.

"So as Dr. Rose said, duh, no wonder I had a back issue.”

Zalatoris explained that he has started using a 44.75-inch driver shaft compared to the previously used inch driver. However, there has been no compromise on his speed. Last year, where he popped 314.7 yards, finishing 13th in driving distance on Tour.

“Be a little more centered, as opposed to having the ball forward with more spine tilt at address. I’m trying to get more centered over it and work more around my right side, so more a turn as opposed to a lateral shift. When my right hip gets high and the spine tilts back, you’re all of a sudden creating all that stress on your back."

Will Zalatoris has already finished in the top 10 in six major tournaments in the last three years, so it isn't easy to change the swing that has given that much success so far.