Will Zalatoris, left, and Tiger Woods walk to the12th green during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Monday, April 8, 2024, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — One year to the day after he was lying on an operating table, a surgeon hovering over his ailing back offering at least some hope of relief, Will Zalatoris walked onto the practice range at Augusta National just as the sun was just beginning to rise.
There were no patrons on the grounds yet. No players yet on the course to begin their preparations for the Masters.
In fact, the only person besides his caddie, Joel Stock, anywhere in sight happened to be one of the few players in the world who could understand what the 27-year-old Zalatoris had gone through the previous 12 months: Tiger Woods.
The five-time Masters champion has undergone the same procedure as Zalatoris, called a microdiscectomy, several times over the years. Its purpose is to remove part or all of a damaged disc in the lower spine, which in many cases will press on the spinal nerves and cause pain or numbness that extends down the legs.
So there they were, Zalatoris and Woods, all but alone on the practice range. The two had spent time at a charity function last year, and Woods had been offering him some advice about how to come back from the surgery, but Zalatoris was still having a hard time mustering up the courage to ask him to play a practice round together.
It was Woods who asked simply, “You playing?” And soon they were off, headed down the par-4 10th hole toward Amen Corner.
“It’s always special to be here,” Zalatoris said later Monday, after he and Woods had spent about three hours chattering their way around the back nine, “but obviously given the last year that I’ve had, it was a very special day.”
In truth, the winding road back to Augusta National has taken far more than a year.
Zalatoris once…
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