Will Zalatoris, Gary Woodland in comeback mode at Sony

 

[January 11, 2024]  A pair of comeback stories highlight the first full-field event of the new PGA Tour season as the Sony Open in Hawaii begins Thursday at Honolulu.

Former top-10 player Will Zalatoris and major champion Gary Woodland are at Waialae Country Club, ready to make their first official starts after time away to address health issues.

Zalatoris had to withdraw ahead of the Masters last April and undergo microdiscectomy surgery to address a herniated disk. Now pain-free, questions turn his golf game. At the unofficial Hero World Challenge last month, he opened with an 81 and finished a distant last place.

"It was really good to get one competitive rep under my belt," Zalatoris said. "Spent a month at home, worked on my game a little bit with my coaches and got a lot of intel, if you will, that week."

The 27-year-old said he has "100 percent" trust in his golf swing now. He was the 2020-21 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and finished second at three majors before his health setback during 2023.

"Looking at the macro instead of the micro has given me a lot better perspective," Zalatoris said. "I've had my favorite thing on earth taken from me for eight months."

Woodland had surgery to remove a benign lesion from his brain in September. It was resting on the part of the brain that controlled fear and anxiety, he said, and he became fearful of death "every day" and experienced partial seizures that woke him up at night.

He played through the symptoms for months before it became clear that medication alone wouldn't suffice.

"That was the hardest part for me, is I wasn't myself," Woodland said. "That was the hardest part for my family as well."

Woodland has four PGA Tour wins to his name but none since the 2019 U.S. Open, which propelled him to a career-high No. 12 in the world rankings at the time.

"I plan on being competitive very quickly," Woodland said. "Like I said, physically I can hit any shot I want. That's not going to be the problem. I am looking forward to being back and where I'm at and expecting to be ready very soon."

Waialae Country Club is a par-70, 7,044-yard course that has produced winners like Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama. Last season, South Korea's Si Woo Kim beat Hayden Buckley by a stroke at 18-under 262.

That was a career boost Kim needed at the time.

"It's been like, if I'm playing whole season, too many good players here, so hard to -- sometimes hard to believe myself," Kim said. "Like I always say, I'm the worst player in the field. Always said that. But last year, this week gives me more confidence and I can do like more (than) before."

The field also includes five top-20 players in the world: Matt Fitzpatrick of England (No. 8), Open champion Brian Harman (No. 9), Tyrrell Hatton of England (No. 14), Keegan Bradley (No. 16) and Sahith Theegala (No. 20).

Theegala is coming off a second-place showing at last week's season opener in Maui, The Sentry, where he shot a final-round 63 and finished one shot back of Chris Kirk.

--Field Level Media

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