ATLANTA, GEORGIA | Gary Woodland, the barrel-chested embodiment of inspiration, has heard the words of encouragement and felt the hugs, both real and intended, in the weeks and months since he went public about his ongoing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of his brain surgery nearly three years ago.
They mean as much now as they ever have and, once in a while, Woodland sees his story manifested in someone else’s struggle.
It happened earlier this month in Memphis where Woodland was playing in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. It was there that Woodland met an 11-year-old living with an inoperable brain tumor.
The youngster had flown from New Zealand to Tennessee to watch Woodland, walking every hole in the wilting August heat, to connect with the golfer who has shared a story many would keep private.
“This is a lot bigger than myself now, I realize that. So when I’m struggling, I fight for them,” Woodland said last week, when asked to explain the challenges and consequences of his situation.
There would have been joy enough last week from the fact that Woodland had qualified for the Tour Championship for the first time in seven years, an achievement that brings with it qualification into the 2027 major championships. Woodland played his way to East Lake at the end, extending a season that is the envy of almost any 42-year-old.
At the conclusion of a season filled with rewards beyond the trophy he won at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Woodland has earned one more – consideration to be promoted from a vice captain on Brandt Snedeker’s U.S. Presidents Cup team roster to a playing role.
There is an inherent expectation that our sports heroes are better than the rest of us but the reality is they are just better at certain things.
Snedeker will announce on Tuesday his six at-large picks to join the six automatic qualifiers at Medinah Country Club next month and while promoting Woodland would be a surprise, it would be hugely popular.
For all of the data-driven decision-making when it comes to these teams, there has to be an element of what feels right. That’s where Woodland comes in.
Want inspiration? Want leadership? Want a player with one win and six top-10s this year?
Woodland would do more than check the boxes. He would be the soul of a team dripping with talent and swagger.
His 29th-place finish at the Tour Championship was a disappointing result, and Woodland being Woodland, with a generosity of spirit as wide as the sky in his native Kansas, he defers to the captain.
“Sneds knows it’s not about me, it’s about me putting the team first, and I definitely will do that,” Woodland said last week. “Like Sneds has said the whole time, golf is going to be the answer. Golf will explain for itself.”
Before the Tour Championship began, Tommy Fleetwood was asked about Woodland’s long and winding road, the one filled with fear and doubt and, hopefully, a rainbow.
“I think he’s been amazing in how he’s kind of been open about his journey with us all. He doesn’t have to do that for sure. For him to have a great year, it’s one of those inspirational stories that I’m sure touches so many people but also has an impact on a lot of people as well and their individual journeys,” Fleetwood said.
When Woodland won the 2019 U.S. Open, staring down back-to-back defending champion Brooks Koepka on Sunday at Pebble Beach, he was like Gary Cooper in soft spikes, strong and silent with apple-pie goodness and grit.
Gary Woodland appreciates the opportunity to ask for, and also to offer, help.
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Four years later, he was fearing for his life, scared he was dying, shaking in his bed, in the dark, in a faraway place. It was caused by a lesion on his brain and while surgery made it better, it also left him forever changed.
There is an inherent expectation that our sports heroes are better than the rest of us but the reality is they are just better at certain things. They are still fathers and mothers, sons and daughters and subject to whatever life brings their way.
Woodland has exemplified that. For all of the well wishes, his days are walked down an uncommon path and when he told the world about his battle with PTSD in March, it was an exercise in courage and personal therapy.
None of us likes to admit our weaknesses or our frailties and Woodland, a steak-and-potatoes stoic, needed and wanted to come clean. The burden may not be shared but it can be lightened by being acknowledged.
“Instead of holding it in all the time, he sort of purged himself. It took a lot of heat off of him,” said Randy Smith, Woodland’s swing coach.
“There are a lot of people with brain surgeries but the part of his brain that was affected, having that going on and being in front of a few thousand people, not feeling right, to still be able to hit the shots he does and to play the way he does is amazing.”
Woodland’s emotions seem closer to the surface now. His voice occasionally catches but he projects an underlying joy to being here.
Growing up in Kansas, all Woodland wanted to be was a professional athlete. When he realized basketball wasn’t his path, he found golf and now, with a wife and family that anchor him and a legion of admirers whose eyes glisten when they hear him explain his appreciation for their thoughts, he exemplifies what the human spirit can do.
“I owe it to my childhood self to fight every day. There’s a lot of days where I don’t want to do it. There’s a lot of days I don’t want to fight, but my wife reminds me why I am. It’s a tribute to my family who sacrificed so much and gave everything for me to go out and live my dreams,” Woodland said.
“I owe it to everyone else – I’m not just playing for myself. Like honestly, I probably was – before all this started, I thought it was about me. This is way bigger than me now. I owe it to them, and I owe it to everyone else that is struggling.”
In a me-first world, Woodland is looking beyond himself. His good days, of which there are many, are 10s and his bad days are ones but Woodland soldiers on.
His golf game has never been better, which his presence at the Tour Championship validated. Smith, his coach, says there have been swing tweaks but Woodland has learned to play toward something rather than play defensively.
Occasionally, Woodland goes to Dallas where Smith is based and spends a few days at what he calls training camp, playing money games, usually $100 a hole, against Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim.
“I’ve had to go to the ATM a couple times playing [Scheffler] in Dallas,” Woodland said, cracking a smile.
“At the end of the day, I want to make this world a better place. If my story or my journey or me talking about the struggles I face every day, if that helps somebody else, man, that’s what it’s all about.”
Gary Woodland
Maybe it’s the fear of losing what you had or maybe it’s the blessing of knowing what you have, whatever it is Woodland is embracing each moment as best he can. There are days on the golf course when it begins to feel like too much, when the drones overhead seem threatening and when tour security has to make sure fans don’t get too close behind but Woodland has found the support to keep going.
When asked the most meaningful thing someone has said to him since he went public with his condition, Woodland says it is two words – thank you.
“When I came out that I was having brain surgery, I don’t know how many texts I got. Let’s just say I got a hundred. When I came out that I’m battling PTSD, I got thousands,” Woodland said.
“People, I don’t think, can relate to the brain surgery. People can relate to what I’m battling now. The amount of messages I got of people just saying thank you because they’re battling stuff that nobody knows about. If I can come out and ask for help and talk about it, then they’ve gotten help, too.
“At the end of the day, I want to make this world a better place. If my story or my journey or me talking about the struggles I face every day, if that helps somebody else, man, that’s what it’s all about.
“I don’t want to be remembered as being a great golfer; I want to be remembered as a great person … My struggles suck. There’s no other way to put it. I have a lot of days that suck, but if that helps somebody else, then that’s going to help me, too.”
There is a youngster in New Zealand fighting a potentially unwinnable battle who appreciates what Woodland is doing and there are many others who have sensed the spirit and felt the tug and have their own stories.
“I don’t have to fight this on my own,” Woodland said. “I can ask for help, and when you do, people help you.”
The hidden blessing is it goes both ways.
Top: Gary Woodland wraps up his first round Thursday at the Tour Championship.
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