Will Zalatoris has more in common with Tiger Woods than he ever used to.
They may still be 15 major championships apart from one another, but Zalatoris said Woods "really helped" him get through his rehab after undergoing back surgery last year. Woods has a well-documented history of surgeries of his own, of course, including his back.
Woods and Zalatoris got together Monday morning for a nine-hole practice round at Augusta National as they prepare for this week's Masters.
"It's kind of more of just, 'Hey, how you feeling? You feel this? You feel that?'" Zalatoris said of Woods lending support. "The patience game is really hard. Obviously he had gone through way more than what I had gone through. Having the same surgeons, kind of the same team, you know, just having the conversation I guess about, 'Hey, after this amount of time how do you feel?'
"I think with the success I had had in majors and how close I've been and how driven I've been to get it and then having a setback -- having the exact same injury, like I said, it's funny because it's not so much of the answers that he's -- or the questions that I've asked and him giving the answers, it's been more the thought-provoking questions that he's given to me has really been the stuff that's kind of got me back to where I am now."
The current concern with Woods is his left ankle. His longtime friend Notah Begay III, now an NBC Sports commentator, told reporters last week that Woods has "zero mobility" in his left ankle along with lower back "challenges" stemming from his 2023 ankle surgery.
Zalatoris was among the first people to see Woods play Augusta up close this week.
"He played great today," Zalatoris said. "He outdrove me a couple times so there was some chirping going on. So, you know, he looks great. He's moving as well as he can be. Again, with everything he's gone through, it's pretty amazing to see how good he's swinging it."
As for Zalatoris, this will be his first major start since 2022 after he had to drop out of the 2023 Masters and undergo back surgery. Though he's yet to win, Zalatoris collected six top-10s in majors from 2020-22, including three second-place finishes.
"I feel great," Zalatoris said. "This is the best I've felt, you know, the last -- I think the best way to put it is I kept thinking I was at 100 percent as I've come back, and each month I've picked up a little more speed, had a little more endurance.
"... I got to the point where I feel like I can push harder in the gym and practice, but you just have to be patient. I am still only 27. I have a long career ahead of me and need to look at the long-term rather than the short-term."
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