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Tiger Woods’ comeback is dominating headlines this week at the Hero World Challenge, but the 15-time major champ isn’t the only one staging a comeback. Will Zalatoris is teeing it up in Bahamas for the first time since his own Masters withdrawal, which was promptly followed by surgery.

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“Kind of a golfer’s worse nightmare is feeling your back giving out on the driving range at Augusta 30 minutes before your tee time,” Zalatoris said Tuesday. “I go from ramping up to Augusta, hurt my back on Thursday and then Saturday I’m already having surgery, it’s a big swing of emotions. I think the first five, six weeks was probably the hardest.”

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It’s a dramatic range of emotions that Tiger knows well, and Zalatoris, 27, had the opportunity to talk to Woods about it recently.

“Yeah, so we had the same surgeon,” Zalatoris said. “We got to talk a little bit about it. His was obviously a lot worse and a much different surgery than what I had had. He’s obviously, I think he’s had a microdiscectomy or two.” (Five to be exact.)

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Anyone watching Woods interact with fellow players on the driving range or during practice rounds, might be surprised to see that the golf legend is endlessly interested in what works or doesn’t work for other great players, and that the golf legend is usually the one asking questions. It was no different with Zalatoris.

“He really asked me more questions really, than I was able to (ask him),” Zalatoris said. “It was also the questions that he asked were really kind of thought provoking. So now as opposed to just looking at videos down the line and face on, I’m looking at videos from my rear side and seeing how my back’s doing and seeing how I’m moving.”

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Zalatoris said he has been working on being more rotational in his swing, rather than vertical, in an attempt to take some pressure off his back. Prior to his surgery he had tried to change his swing to alleviate some of the stress but worried he was getting too far away from the things that made his ball-striking the envy of the golf world.

“It was more of not changing who I am as a golfer and my golf swing, but just refining things to where they’re a little bit more simple,” he said.

Zalatoris said his swing speed is approaching his pre-surgery numbers of 182-184 mph ball speed, hitting 178 mph ball speed on Monday during practice. The entire process has made him appreciate even more what this week’s tournament host Woods has accomplished in recent times.

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“It’s ridiculous. There’s no other way to put it. What he’s doing and what he’s gone through with his body, especially to come back and win another major after everything that he had gone through,” Zalatoris said.

“Yeah, this was my first time really having any sort of surgery in my entire life and going through that recovery process. The fact that he’s had to go through so much and still be as good as he is, even up in his late 40s now, still being able to go out and just play in majors is just, there’s no other words to put it besides just putting it in the list of remarkable things that that guy’s done in his career.”

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