One of golf’s brightest stars is returning. In May, I thought he was done.

Will Will Zalatoris be able to act?

“I’ve never been able to attend a drama class in my life,” he says, but he spent summers there performing slapstick plays featuring ball-and-stick golfers in a cameo in the “Happy Gilmore” sequel. He had a few lines. He strangled the man. He got tackled. Forget the green jacket. Give him a Golden Globe.

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But did you see him at the 2022 US Open?

Of course it’s a tournament. But Zalatoris’s masterpiece was there. He received an intro to tie for first place on the final day, and to set the mood, viewers at home watched as the candidate drove into a parking space, the candidate unloaded the trunk, and the candidate strutted into the clubhouse as music played and analysts analyzed. And then there was Zaratris.

Mask the limp. He was pretending to be okay.

“The moment your car comes in, you get out and the camera is right there,” he says. “And I remember heading into the final round, trying to hide how limp I was, just because of how stiff I was and my back was.

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“And I could still go out and maybe win a major.”

Four years ago, he almost did it, but his tying 15-foot shot on the 72nd hole skimmed the left side of the cup, giving Matt Fitzpatrick the winner. But what would have happened if Zalatoris hadn’t been injured? What if his back cooperated? Or at least not handicap him? Obviously we can’t know that. But you’ll soon find out what a healthy Zalatoris looks like. The 2022 opening foreshadowed further suffering in the future. There was also surgery. multiple. There was also a drawer. multiple. There were also returns. multiple. The latest is Thursday, when Zalatoris tees off at the American Express Tournament, his second start since undergoing surgery last May and his first on the PGA Tour.

As before, he’s hopeful, but this time it feels different because he’s physically there. His surgery seven months ago was a complete disc replacement. The surgery in 2023 was a microscopic discectomy after suffering two herniated discs. In other words, Zalatoris said he believes the latest research solves all problems, not just some of them. But a new disc? Sounds unsettling. He’s also only 29 years old. There will be a fair amount of opening and closing that you will have to do by the time you turn 30. But Zalatoris said he knew the procedure had been performed on others. “Finally I said, look, let’s do it, we have the technology. We’re putting it into long drive players, we’re putting it into hockey players, and it’s saved players’ careers,” he said. And a week after missing the cut at the PGA Championship last May, the work was done.

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Eight weeks later, he started putting.

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Then a few weeks later he started chipping.

After 15 weeks, doctors told him to play.

Zaratris can’t stop now. 36? 36 days in a row? Gym job? 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 little weird for me to say this at 29 years old, but you know what I’ve been through for the last three, four, five years.”

But that doesn’t mean his play during that period was bad. Zalatoriz competed in more than 10 majors between 2020 and 2022, securing six top-10 finishes, including a runner-up finish at the 2022 U.S. Open and two others. He was named the 2021 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. And in August 2022, he won his first PGA Tour event, leading both the PGA Tour’s season-long points race and the DP World Tour. But the stop-and-go continued. “From there, it was like, ‘Can I play or can I make it?'” he said. A week after his victory, he withdrew from the BMW Championship due to lower back issues, then competed in the 2023 Masters, underwent a minidiscectomy, returned at the end of the same year, and played for about a year and a half before undergoing his latest surgery.

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At that point, he said, questions arose.

He wondered if he could continue.

“Is this true when your surgeon says, ‘I won’t see you for 20 years?'” Zalatoris said. “Of course, the little things that always creep into my mind…

“Mentally it was very tough. Given all the issues I was having, I ended up leaving the PGA not knowing if it was going to be my last professional golf tournament or not. But I think coming back here will only make you appreciate it more.”

During his recent outing, he said he re-practiced his swing. (“Actually, a lot of it is just trying to understand my body a little bit better in terms of how I rotate around my body,” he said. “A lot of people have always been pretty critical of my posture and how much I dive toward the ball. The difference is, last year I’d say I did a pretty good job managing it, but this time it’s not being managed.”) He said he only watched a little golf. Ryder Cup. major. When friends were fighting each other. But he played. $1 and $2 games. He also explored. “Once I was able to play No. 18 last fall, I made a conscious effort to play a lot of new golf courses and have fun,” he said.

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But it’s what he didn’t do that made him most optimistic.

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“I’m not sitting at home hitting a million golf balls trying to figure out my golf swing, when in reality I was bending my hips,” Zalatoris said.

So what can we expect on Thursday?

Patience will be required. My back is more fickle than golf. The pain in that area is like a shin, it comes out of nowhere and is painful and lasts a long time. Therefore, it may take some time. That’s probably what Zalatoris would argue. Maybe he’ll do well. Maybe he’s gearing up for April and Augusta. That would be symbolic. Three years ago, he withdrew from there.

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

That gives him the final say. But this time he will win.

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

“I have become more appreciative of my situation.”

The post One of golf’s brightest stars is returning. In May, he appeared on Golf for the first time, thinking he was done.