Tranlate this title Problems stall one of most brilliant careers in spanish

Will Zalatoris is now 30 years old and ranked 610th in the world. Back problems are derailing the career of a golfer who once burst onto the professional scene with great impact, quickly establishing himself as a top performer in Major championships—though he never managed to win one. At the 2021 Masters, he came close to becoming the first rookie to win the tournament since 1979, ultimately finishing in second place.

Zalatoris, problems

The American has consistently proven to be a formidable player, with the potential to rank among the world’s best, but his name is being heard less and less due to his ongoing back issues. He has now announced that he will undergo another surgery, which he says will force him to miss the entire 2027 PGA Tour season.

In 2022, he came close to winning the PGA Championship—an edition remembered for Mito Pereira’s collapse—but lost in a playoff to Justin Thomas. He later secured his first and only PGA Tour victory, climbing to seventh in the world rankings; however, just a week later, he was forced to withdraw from the BMW Championship due to back problems, and he has not competed regularly since. During that magical 2022 season, he was in contention at three of the four Majors. He stopped playing in April of this year and has now returned to compete in the Austin Championship, but simultaneously announced that he will undergo spinal fusion surgery at the end of November.

«I’ve been through four years of hell, so it’s good to have something that, hopefully, will provide some relief,» Zalatoris remarked to the press. The Californian added, with a sense of resignation: “It’s not something you want to do, but when three Tour physiotherapists tell you that it has to be done at some point, you just do it.” This will be the third major back procedure Zalatoris has undergone, following a microdiscectomy in 2023 and an artificial disc replacement in 2025. He competed in four tournaments this year before missing the remainder of the season due to a torn labrum in his right hip.

“Everything is connected, and I just want to get it fixed. Given what I’ve been through, I can’t make any promises to anyone. I’m the oldest 30-year-old you’ll ever meet,” the golfer added. He is not—nor will he be—the first golfer to face serious back issues. There are many such cases; in Spain, for example, Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal both struggled significantly in this regard, while Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Jason Day, and Rory McIlroy also know what it’s like to deal with these types of injuries.