Will Zalatoris withdraws before start of Cognizant Classic

Will Zalatoris withdrew from the Cognizant Classic before beginning his first round on Thursday.

He was replaced in the field by Ben Silverman playing alongside Brooks Koepka and Daniel Berger.

Per PGATour.com, Zalatoris withdrew due to a left ankle injury. The 29-year-old was scheduled to make his third start of 2026 as he returns from his second back surgery in three years.

The first was a microdiscectomy in the spring of 2023, followed by a disk replacement surgery last May. Zalatoris compared his spine to a "Jenga tower" this week, while saying that he has been playing pain-free.

"I think the part that's fun about this now is the three years of kind of going through all this is over," said Zalatoris, adding that the disc replacement made him three-quarters of an inch taller to 6-foot-2. "The sciatica, the leg weakness, like I haven't had any of that.

"The difference now is that I can do the things that I've needed to do. Physically, I wasn't capable of doing those things. And so there would even be times where I'd play a couple of weeks and I'd have to take a full week off."

Zalatoris reached as high as seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking but entered this week at No. 252. After closing out 2025 with a 15th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the DP World Tour, he opened this year with a T18 at The American Express before missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open.

--Field Level Media