‘Hard year for me:’ Gary Woodland makes emotional Fedex Cup playoffs charging at Wyndham

Gary Woodland has been open and vulnerable about his journey back from brain surgery to have a tumor removed in 2023.

The US Open Champion 2019 admitted that he probably should not have been playing on the PGA Tour in 2024, but he learned a lot about how he can navigate his life after the operation, the work needed to calm his nervous system and what he has to do to lead life that he wants both on and outside the course. The Work Woodland did it in 2024, with the help of his wife Gabby, led him to this season, where he felt better equipped to treat the life of PGA Tour now that he had a better understanding of how he could arrange his brain from the stimulation of tournament game.

Woodland opened his season with three Top-25 Finishes and then finished second in the Texas Children’s Houston Open in March. But since then it has been heavy sleds for forest. He has only had two top 20 finishes since he was defeated by Min Woo Lee in Houston and is no better than T11. He arrived this week at the Wyndham Championship, the regular season finale of the PGA Tour, in 75th place in the Fedex Cup classification and on the outside of the play-off bubble.

But Woodland opened with rounds of 67 and 64 at Sedgefield Country Club to fight itself. An Even-PAR 70 of the third round held out its pursuit for a title, but it is good enough to move it from no. 75 to no. 70 and to project him to be the last man in the play-offs.

After De Ronde, Woodland was suffocated in an interview with CBS when he thought about another difficult year after the operation and an opportunity to get to the play-offs for the first time since 2022.

“It was a difficult year for me,” Woodland told Amanda Balionis of CBS. “It has been a long year for me. I am tired. I have to go back into a dark room and just try to turn off my brain as much as possible. It has been difficult. I am happy that I play well.”

In March, Woodland received the PGA Tour’s Courage Award for its openness and vulnerability after the operation. While he accepted the prize, Woodland discussed how his first year was back on tour, and how he and his family found solutions to allow him to compete on the PGA Tour and lead a normal life.

“I fight at the end of the day,” Woodland said in March. “The last thing I am going to do this is to let this thing stop in my head, and that’s why I fight every day. I want to be there for my children and my family, but I also want to chase my dreams. I have a lot of dreams here.

“I am starting to understand what I have to do every day to function in life, but the things I do to help with my brain also help me to play golf, and I knock on the door. I know my game is close by. It is coming and I keep beating that door until I passed on, and then we will see what happens.”

Woodland goes on Sunday at the Wyndham championship as the Play -Ooff Bubble Boy. But although there is a lot of pressure on his next 18 holes golf, Woodland is planning to take things as slowly as possible, trust his breathing exercises to calm his nervous system and lean on his play to bring him to Memphis and the first Playoff event.

“To be honest with you, not crazy,” Woodland said reporters after the round about the amount of pressure he stands for on Sunday. “I know that my game is in a good place. I know that if I go to play the way I can, I can make it right, and I am trusting. Many worse places that I could be, so I will try to enjoy tomorrow.

It has been a long two years for Bos. But he continued to fight on and from the course to lead the life he wants as a golfer, father and husband.

On Sunday, Woodland is confronted with a test of 18 holes to hit another milestone in his recovery and to extend his season for the first time since 2022 to the play-offs. There will be a lot on every swing, but Woodland sees no discouraging task on the horizon.

“I know I play well, what a big problem,” said Woodland. “I have been in this situation, try to fight to get into the play -offs, and I had not played well. This is a bit different, I know my game is in a good place. If I can go there and perform what is for me, it should be pretty good.”