The 2019 U.S. Open champion made his return to PGA Tour play on Thursday in the first round of the 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Woodland was visibly emotional on No. 10 tee, his first hole of the day, as he received a warm aloha from the crowd on hand. Woodland missed the fairway on the short par 4 but scrambled for par.
“I had gone four and a half months of every day really thinking I was going to die,” Woodland said on Tuesday ahead of his 2024 debut. “Every day it was a new way of dying, new way of death. The jolting in the middle of the night scared the heck out of me.”
Before his surgery, Woodland competed in 24 Tour events in the 2023 season and earned six top-25 finishes, with two inside the top 10.
He shot a 1-over 73 and was tied for 83rd but that was secondary.
“Probably the happiest I’ve ever been shooting over par, tell you that,” he said. “At the end of the day the goal this week was to see how I was mentally, and I was really, really good.”
Woodland had three bogeys in his first eight holes – he played the back nine first – but birdied two of his final seven, including his last hole of the day, the par-5 ninth.
“This was one of the hardest rounds I’ve ever had here,” he said. “And got off to a rough start. I was excited and was doing a lot of breathing trying to slow everything down because I was moving fast. I settled in, especially the last nine holes, and played really, really well. A lot to build on and. Like I said, I’m excited. The energy stayed up. Focus stayed up. A lot to be proud of.”
He started feeling some troubling symptoms: shaking, tremors in his hands, loss of appetite, chills, no energy.
HONOLULU, Hawaii – Gary Woodland never feared anything except the fear of failure. That is until he began being jolted awake with the fear of dying.
“I had gone four and a half months of every day really thinking I was going to die,” he said on Tuesday. “Every day it was a new way of dying, new way of death. The jolting in the middle of the night scared the heck out of me.”
It turned out he had a lesion on his brain, and on Sept. 18, Woodland underwent a craniotomy, slicing his head open all the way down to his ear and cutting about a baseball-sized hole in his skull to remove the majority of the tumor.
“Then put it back with plates and screws. So I’ve got a robotic head, I guess,” joked Woodland, who required 30 staples in his head.
“I had some people tell me this was a little optimistic to be here this week, but last week my family and I came over to Hawaii early,” he said. “Ramped up practice, ramped up the training and the body responded beautifully. Kept getting better and better.”
Woodland, 39, has won four times on the PGA Tour, with his biggest victory coming at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. But in late April, shortly after the Masters, he started feeling some troubling symptoms at the Mexico Open at Vidanta: shaking, tremors in his hands, loss of appetite, chills, no energy. It became so bad that he called his longtime doctor on May 24 and begged for help to deal with his anxiety.
“You think you can overcome stuff. I couldn’t overcome this,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man, I need something to calm me down.’ ”
His doctor said he couldn’t prescribe any medication without Woodland undergoing an MRI. Woodland went to get an MRI that night and it revealed a lesion on his brain, which led to more testing and eventually an appointment with a specialist.
“The lesion in my brain sat on the part of my brain that controls fear and anxiety,” Woodland explained. “He’s like, you’re not going crazy. Everything you’re experiencing is common and normal for where this thing is sitting in your brain.”
Woodland was prescribed anxiety seizure medicine that he took twice daily but his fear of dying only got worse initially.
“It was Wednesday (May 31) or Thursday night (June 1) of the Memorial and I’m laying in bed at 1 (a.m.) grabbing the bed to tell myself I wasn’t falling from heights, I wasn’t dying, for an hour.”
Gary Woodland prepares to play his shot from the fourth tee during the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
When the mini-seizures continued, they upped the dosage. As the medicine started to increase, his brain slowed down and the seizures stopped.
“The meds I was on were working for the seizures but were horrible for me as a person,” he said. “I had horrible side effects.”
One of those side effects was short-term memory loss. “I would be standing over a club and forget which club I’m hitting. I would be lining up putts and think, this is taking too long. I’m just going to hit it,” he said. “Didn’t have the focus or the energy.”
Woodland kept playing because physically his game felt fine and competing provided a short respite from the fear and anxiety he dealt with, but after he failed to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs, his caddie pulled him aside and said, “You can’t play this way. You’ve got to go get help. You’ve got to get fixed.”
A biopsy showed that the tumor, which was diagnosed as benign, was up against his optic tract on the brain and it was too risky to remove all of it.
“They removed as much as they could,” Woodland said, noting there had been the risk of losing his vision or even control of the left side of his body, “and believe they cut off the blood circulation to what’s left.”
Woodland spent two days in the ICU. When he was released from the hospital, they brought a wheelchair to the ICU room but Woodland declined using it. “I said, I’m sorry, I walked in this place and I’m walking out,” he recalled. “I got out of bed and I walked straight to my car and got home, and it was amazing seeing my (three) kids. They didn’t come while I was in the hospital. We didn’t want to bring them to see me like that.”
Woodland immediately began plotting his comeback. Full Swing Simulators installed PuttView, its indoor putting green, into the dining room at his house and he began putting two days after surgery. He was cleared to hit golf balls four weeks later but waited an extra week. Woodland played so badly during his first nine holes that he phoned his teacher, Butch Harmon, and asked if he could come see him in Las Vegas. Within 30 minutes, the rust started to come off.
“G-Dub, you’re right where you’re supposed to be,” Harmon said.
This journey has been very hard but I’m extremely thankful to be progressing and for the unconditional love and support from everyone. You’ve all made this process a little easier for me and my family. Thank you to everyone and I look forward seeing you all next year. pic.twitter.com/ON16PuDUck
More than anything, Woodland is grateful for the love and support he’s received from his golf family as well as people he doesn’t even know who have been moved by his story.
“I realize there is a lot of good in this world,” Woodland said. “Even being back this week, seeing the guys, haven’t seen many guys. It’s been overwhelming how good it’s been.”
The question remains: Is he ready for seven days of mental focus and stress? Woodland said it is standard protocol to be on medication for at least six months, and he got a good report after an MRI a week and a half ago. He’s ready to prove that he can get back to being one of the best players in the world.
“I want to prove to my kids nobody is going to tell you you can’t do anything. You can overcome tough, scary decisions in your life. Not everything is easy. This came out of nowhere for me, but I’m not going to let it stop me,” he said. “I don’t want this to be a bump in the road for me. I want it to be a jump start in my career.”
In his social media post, he expressed thanks for the “unconditional love and support.”
Gary Woodland posted a video of himself hitting golf balls at a driving range Monday afternoon, almost two months after he had brain surgery.
Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open champ at Pebble Beach, had surgery Sept. 18 to remove a lesion. Three days after that, the University of Kansas, where Woodland played college golf, named its golf facilities after him.
Woodland, 39, previously posted that he had been trying to treat symptoms with medication but, after consulting with specialists and his family, he decided that surgery to remove a lesion was his best option.
In his social media post, he expressed thanks for the “unconditional love and support.”
This journey has been very hard but I’m extremely thankful to be progressing and for the unconditional love and support from everyone. You’ve all made this process a little easier for me and my family. Thank you to everyone and I look forward seeing you all next year. pic.twitter.com/ON16PuDUck
“After a long surgery today, the majority of the tumor has been removed and he is currently resting.”
Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland underwent surgery on Monday to remove tumors in his brain.
“After a long surgery today, the majority of the tumor has been removed and he is currently resting,” according to a social media post under Woodland’s handle.
Woodland, 39, previously posted that he was diagnosed a few months ago and had been trying to treat symptoms with medication. But after consulting with specialists and his family. Woodland decided that surgery to remove the legion was his best option.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, brain lesions are damaged areas of the brain tissue that can occur due to injury or medical conditions. A stroke is an example of a type of brain lesion. They can disrupt how your brain functions and cause weakness, sensory disruption and confusion.
Woodland, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, last competed at the Wyndham Championship, the final regular season FedEx Cup event, on Aug. 6, where he tied for 27th. For the first time in a decade Woodland failed to finish inside the top 70 and did not qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs.
“At this time, the family requests space and privacy to be together,” Woodland’s social media post included. “Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers as he gets started on the road to recovery.”
In 24 starts this PGA Tour season, Woodland earned six top-25 finishes, with two inside the top 10.
On Wednesday morning, four-time PGA Tour winner Gary Woodland took to social media to share with golf fans that he will be having surgery to remove a brain lesion on Sept. 18.
“I was diagnosed a few months ago and have been trying to treat symptoms with medication,” Woodland wrote. “After consulting with multiple specialists and discussing with my family, we’ve made the decision that surgery to remove the lesion is the best course of action.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, brain lesions are damaged areas of the brain tissue that can occur due to injury or medical conditions. A stroke is an example of a type of brain lesion. They can disrupt how your brain functions and cause weakness, sensory disruption and confusion.
“I’m in good spirits with my family and team by my side and so thankful for the love and support of everyone,” he added.
Woodland’s last tournament was the Wyndham Championship three weeks ago, where he tied for 27th. For the first time in a decade Woodland failed to finish inside the top 70 and did not qualify for the season-ending FedEx Cup Playoffs.
In 24 starts this PGA Tour season, Woodland earned six top-25 finishes, two inside the top 10 at the Houston Open and Genesis Invitational. He also made the cut in three of the four majors.
Woodland is well known for his 2019 WM Phoenix Open practice round, where he invited Amy Bockerstette, a collegiate golfer with Down syndrome, to play the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale. After finding a greenside bunker, Bockerstette became an instant star by getting up-and-down for par.
Later that summer Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach for his first major championship to beat two-time defending champion Brooks Koepka by three shots.
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern continues to be in critical condition after undergoing emergency brain surgery last week.
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern continues to be in serious condition after undergoing emergency brain surgery last week.
The league issued a statement Tuesday saying that the 77-year-old “is receiving great care and surrounded by his loved ones. The Stern family and everyone at the NBA appreciates the incredible outpouring of support. Our thoughts and prayers remain with David and his family.”
On Thursday, Dec. 12, Stern suffered a brain hemorrhage while eating at a New York restaurant and was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery.
Stern served as NBA Commissioner for 30 years before Adam Silver stepped into the role in 2014. Stern has remained engaged in the league, holding the title of NBA Commissioner Emeritus.
