2024 may not have gone according to plan for Will Zalatoris, but he’s leaving that behind and looking ahead to 2025 with renewed determination. Having packed on nearly 20 pounds of muscle and focused on improving his putting from 10 to 25 feet, Zalatoris feels ready to return to his elite form. “Before the weight gain, I thought I was at 100 percent, but it still didn’t feel right,” Zalatoris explained. It wasn’t until he added muscle that he realized just how much more he could bring to his game.

In 2024, he played 22 events, making the cut in 15 but struggled with consistency and injuries. Despite missing out on the season he envisioned, Zalatoris is now fully focused on a fresh start, determined to get back in the mix as one of the top players in 2025. The official X account of the PGA Tour shared his journey. “You know I put on about 20 pounds of muscles this offseason”, he said. Will Zalatoris had to miss every event of the season in 2023 after he withdrew from the Masters. He then appeared in the Hero World Challenge after eight months. Moreover, he had to go through a microdiscectomy to relieve pain in the herniated disc of the spine. 

Taking to this, he said, “I think the work I put in is going to propel me in 2025. I would say it was fun, but it wasn’t fun. It was a lot of protein and a lot of working out. Eating until I felt like I was full and then eating some more. And I needed to do it. I needed to get some more stability for my back. It just felt like throughout the year, I was reacting and not being able to be proactive about it.” The process of rehabilitation took a lot of time, and when it was not the surgery, he made it to the Tour Championship every other year. He rarely got any off-season to work on himself until 2024.

“And now, you know, if you kind of think about it, over my last four to five years, I haven’t had an offseason. I have either been rehabilitating for my back injury or playing. Do you know, I only played twice this fall, so I could be at home and put on some muscle and, you know most importantly work on my game. It was 200gm of protein daily. And then it varied anywhere between 3000 and 4,500 calories a day. I needed to get 4,500 calories at least three times a week,” he added. He wishes to have a good game going on for the next seven to eight years, and weighing so less would have gotten in the way. And so his motto was initially, ‘See food, eat food’. It was always about getting the perfect amount of protein into his body. And well, that seems to have worked out for him. 

While Will Zalatoris is at the top of the world with his achievements, it turns out that the golf world does not seem to believe in his claims. 

The golf community does not believe Will Zalatoris to have gained 20 pounds

Will Zalatoris has already kicked-started the 2025 season with the Sentry. After two rounds, he is currently at 12 on the leaderboard, which is a little concerning. However, it is needless to say that he did fare well. His opening round was exceptional, with a birdie on the first hole. He went completely bogey-free and carded eight birdies. While his form might have improved, there is no way the fans believe that he has gained such a massive amount of muscle. Taking to these, they left comments like, “He absolutely did not put 20lbs of muscle on” and “Zero chance”.

Remember the state of Bryson DeChambeau in 2020? The current LIV Golf member gained 50 pounds in just a few months, transforming his physique to resemble that of an NFL linebacker. A swing speed that generated some of the longest drives on the PGA Tour accompanied this dramatic change. His rapid transformation was the result of intense weightlifting and a protein shake-focused diet. But the fans refused to believe that too, and the same is the case with Zalatoris. 

Additionally, taking in massive amounts of protein and food not only leads to muscle gain but also adds a lot of weight. Taking to all these factors, people left comments like, “He gained, at most, 5-8# of muscle. The rest was fat” and “That said, still a good call and I have no doubt he’ll feel better and the extra weight will allow him to perform better.”

While one of them was taking to his back surgery and injuries, sarcastically wrote, “His back has left the chat”. What are your thoughts about the transformation journey of Will Zalatoris? Let us know in the comments section below!