A bulked-up Will Zalatoris used this putting drill to improve from midrange this offseason

Will Zalatoris is hoping his opening round of 2025 is a sign of what's to come the next 363 days.

"Hopefully this is Will of 2025," he said.

And for good reason. Zalatoris, who is making his return to The Sentry after missing it in 2024, opened in 8-under 65 at Kapalua's Plantation Course. He's tied for second, one shot behind Tom Hoge, who opened with 10 birdies and signed for a 9-under 64. It was a flashback to the Zalatoris who finally broke through at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in 2022 for his first win, before a back injury and surgery in April of 2023 derailed the next year and a half of his career.

But heading into 2025, Zalatoris has put on nearly 20 pounds of muscle, has worked to improve from 10 to 25 feet on his putting and is feeling like he's in a position to get back into the conversation as one of the best players in the game.

"It's nice to be in a really good spot and really good head space," Zalatoris said. "Body feels great. Put in a lot of great work over the last four months. Purposely didn't play much because I wanted to get some work in."

Zalatoris said a majority of his offseason was working with sports performance coach Damon Goddard on his body's pliability. After back surgery at such a young age, the 28-year-old said he wants to make sure his career has longevity. Hence the work in the gym and putting on muscle, helping his body withstand the strains of a long PGA Tour season.

"Obviously I could stand up on any tee and pop off a 180 ball speed, but I want to do that for as long as I can. Hopefully, this is something that's going to help for the long-term," he said.

Perhaps the most important part of Zalatoris' improvement this offseason came on the greens. He started using a broomstick putter in late 2023 and put it in the bag ahead of the 2024 season.

Notoriously a player who has struggled on the greens, the broomstick helped Zalatoris' stroke on putts inside of 10 feet, but as one of the best ball-strikers on Tour, he wanted to work on the mid-range putts since he faces those often during tournaments.

So he and Josh Gregory got to work.

"Thirty putts, five 10-footers, five 12-footers, five 15, five 17, five 20 and I got to make nine out of 30, and do it until you complete it," Zalatoris said. "So it's basically, like the drills that we do, you look at the strokes gained average from those distances and then maybe try to raise it, maybe try to get to strokes gained plus 1, which make it's that much harder, especially if you're doing it on a practice green that I know.

"Obviously it paid off today. That was really probably the best I've putted from 10 to 25 feet maybe ever. It's a nice way to start the year."

Zalatoris gained neaely four strokes on the greens Thursday, good for third in the field. He made 133 feet of putts and the flat stick, or broom stick in his case, made up for a so-so day off the tee.

Last year, Zalatoris finished tied for second at the Genesis Invitational then T-4 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He also placed T-9 at the Masters, but then his season tailed off. He finished top 15 at the first two playoff events but didn't make the Tour Championship before playing only once in the fall.

"I think having the success early was really good for me mentally because when you haven't played for eight months, and especially your first event back finishing in last by nine at Tiger's event (Hero World Challenge), you know, it was really good to feel that good that early," Zalatoris said of his fast start last year. "But again, I hadn't finished a season really in the last few years because of injury, and then on top of that this is my first off-season really since 2019, because I was always playing in the fall or I was rehabbing.

"So this year I wanted to make sure that I kept a club in my hand and played maybe once every five, six weeks, and that's why I played in Zozo, that's why I went to South Africa, but it was more about trying to make sure that I'm giving myself the best chance coming up into this season."

Near the end of his press conference, Zalatoris was if Thursday was the best he felt since when. His answer was telling.

"Probably ever," he said. "I mean, even in 2022 I was fighting it a little bit. Did treatment, but I didn't think much of it. Then, yeah, knock on wood, but I don't feel like I've even had surgery now. So, like I said, the ceiling is something that I wanted to keep raising, because I knew that if I was going to be sitting at 160 pounds and trying to hit it 300 yards out here, it's not a recipe for longevity."

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Bulked-up Will Zalatoris used this putting drill to improve midrange