Will Zalatoris announced Monday he will miss the remainder of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season after undergoing back surgery this past Saturday. Zalatoris, one of the budding young stars of the game, has been dealing with back issues since his breakthrough victory at the WGC-St. Jude Invitational in August 2022, and he was forced to undergo the procedure over the weekend to correct the nagging injury.
“After careful consideration and seeking multiple medical opinions, I underwent a successful microdiscectomy on Saturday,” Zalatoris released in a statement. “As much as I hate not being able to play the rest of this season, I am happy that I am already seeing the benefits of the procedure. Playing and living in pain is not fun. I look forward to making a full recovery and seeing everyone in the fall. Thank you to Dr. Michael Duffy, Dr. Tom Kelton, and their respective teams for getting me fixed. And, of course, thank you to everyone for the support and the messages. I look forward to getting back to 100%.”
The microdiscectomy procedure aimed to relieve the world No. 8 of the pain related to his herniated discs he first cited when he withdrew from the 2022 BMW Championship during the FedEx Cup Playoffs. While the former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year stepped away from competition for four months in order to heal, it is apparent the issue was more serious than even he thought at the time.
Zalatoris returned to action at the Tournament of Champions to kick off 2023, experiencing a mixed bag of results. Racing to the finish line at the Genesis Invitational, the 26-year-old’s final-round 7-under 64 shot him up the leaderboard and into the top five by tournament’s end.
“It was fun,” Zalatoris said Sunday at Riviera. “[But] it was kind of Step 2 of 10 in the recovery process, so we’re getting close.”
Unfortunately, it appears Step 2 is as far as Zalatoris would get, at least in 2023. Struggling…
Source : cbssports
