Will Zalatoris has made a great start to the season at the Sentry Tournament. The Californian is second after carding a 65, eight under par, in the opening round at Kapalua.
Since August, Will has only played the Zozo Championship and the NedBank Challenge in South Africa. It might seem unusual for a player who has suffered greatly over the past two years due to unfortunate injuries and from whom there is hope to regain the form of that player who dazzled at Augusta National in 2021 and was just one shot away from donning his first Green Jacket.
His absence from the golf courses this time had nothing to do with any ailment. A defined plan to regain his best form. Zalatoris has spent three months day and night working hard in the gym with one goal: “I usually lose some weight in pre-season, but this year has been completely different, I’ve gained eight kilos working in the gym with my fitness coach, Damon Goddard.”
The reason for this decision lies in the fact that the golfer, due to his build, has been forced to hit the ball from the tee with great intensity. This is where many of the back problems Zalatoris has suffered come from: “I felt like I had to be at 110 percent. I was very thin and to hit hard I had to rely on adrenaline.”
As the champion of the FedEx St Jude Championship 2022 explains, this left him with many physical limitations that day-to-day forced him to stop and take breaks from playing: “I had to take a couple of days off and rest my back, or get a lot of treatments. Not anymore. It’s difficult, when you limit your training, to go out and play against the best players in the world.”
Gaining weight hasn’t been a necessity to gain miles from the tee, which of course also helps, but a necessity to extend his sporting career: “I knew I had to get stronger. It wasn’t so much about speed, I know speed will come, I needed stability to make sure I was capable of doing what I’m doing. Later on, if I feel capable of adding a couple of miles per hour here or there, great, but speed isn’t what worries me now, it’s the longevity of my career.”
With humour, he recounts that physically he has already noticed it in this first round in Maui: “Today I laughed because climbing the hill on the ninth hole is our worst walk of the year, and normally I’m huffing and puffing, and I was like, okay, I know it’s Thursday and we’ve been out for a while, but I’ve never felt so good going up that hill,”
The 28-year-old golfer is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel: “Since August I haven’t had to get a cortisone injection or anything like that, so it’s the best I’ve felt.” Gaining weight to extend the career.
