{"id":227593,"date":"2025-10-27T05:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227593\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T05:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:11:12","slug":"will-zalatoris-eyes-return-to-pga-tour-in-2026-after-nightmare-of-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227593\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Zalatoris Eyes Return to PGA Tour in 2026 After &#8216;Nightmare of Three Years&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_ypx95qygu\">Will Zalatoris has apparently reached the light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_7vykfz6v4\">Following a series of back surgeries, the 29-year-old eyes a return to competition on the PGA Tour in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sign Up Now. SI Golf Newsletters. Sports Illustrated\u2019s Free Golf Newsletters. dark<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_kr261bts6\">&#8220;I&#8217;m already back playing, I\u2019m grinding every day,&#8221; Zalatoris told the PGA Tour at the senior tour\u2019s Simmons Bank Championship. &#8220;Trying to get in at least 18 [every day]. It\u2019s been a long grind, don\u2019t get me wrong, but this is the most positive I\u2019ve felt in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_u9ceasxs6\">Why was he taking in a PGA Tour Champions event?<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_hmkcenlf2\">\u201cI am getting a lot of advice this week on the PGA Tour Champions since there are a lot of guys with a lot of mileage on their bodies,\u201d Zalatoris said, \u201cso I am definitely taking some notes this week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After undergoing back surgery in May, Will Zalatoris is optimistic about his eventual return to competition.<\/p>\n<p>Zalatoris visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChampionsTour?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@ChampionsTour<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBGolfChamp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@SBGolfChamp<\/a> this week and offered an update \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Hq4gUpRfXj\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Hq4gUpRfXj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PGATOUR\/status\/1981437575379157182?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">October 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_ryxsp5ulz\">Between 2020 and &#8217;22, Zalatoris had six top 10s in majors and earned his maiden Tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August 2022. A week later, however, he suffered two herniated disks in his back and missed the rest of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_1xgc6rcxf\">With lingering effects from the injury, he opted for surgery in April 2022 and has since made only 41 starts, with the ailment never fully subsiding. So four months ago, he went under the knife again, addressing another two herniated disks in his back. His last start was the PGA Championship, where he missed the cut. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_gc5y3565p\">Now, feeling fully healthy for the first time in nearly three years, the world No. 160 looks forward to showing the promise he flashed in his first few years on Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_1mfvp8o-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_qhc9h9kid\">\u201cI feel like the nightmare of three years of back pain is kind of gone now, finally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Zalatoris has apparently reached the light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 Following a series of back&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-227593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}