JACKSON, Miss. — Gary Woodland stood statuesque, squinting to sequester the sunlight Saturday during the third round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
The 40-year-old from Topeka, Kansas, was looking for a better view of his ball, which he’d just struck from the right intermediate fairway on the 18th hole at the Country Club of Jackson.
One hundred thirty-six yards separated that ball from that hole after Woodland’s 351-yard drive.
The roars and rounds of applause from spectators in the stands in the distance only further confirmed what Woodland’s eyes saw.
“Beautiful,” he said to himself as that ball came to rest four inches shy of an eagle on the 488-yard par 4.
Woodland’s voyage to that shot, that moment, began Sept. 18, 2023, when the 2019 U.S. Open champion had brain surgery to remove a lesion that caused him anxiety and fear of death.
Sanderson Farms: Leaderboard | Photos
“I didn’t get much out of it (Saturday), because I played a lot better than the score,” said Woodland, who shot a 2-under 70 to move to minus-14 after three rounds. “But I’m excited to be here. It’s been a long road back for me, but I’m starting to see some signs of some good things.
“I’m not back to normal yet, but I’m trending in the right direction. I’m starting to feel better, which I think shows why the game is getting better.”
Kirk Hinrich is the reason Gary Woodland gave up basketball for golf.
Woodland was a freshman on a basketball scholarship at Division II Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Hinrich, an All-American guard at Kansas who played 13 seasons in the NBA.
The two teams met in an exhibition at Allen Fieldhouse. It was Woodland’s first college game. He was assigned to guard Hinrich. His team lost 101-66.
“That’s something I’ll never forget,” he told the Clarion Ledger. “I learned real quickly that’s another level.”
Woodland, who was a two-time state champion and an all-state at Shawnee Heights High School in Tecumseh, Kansas, decided after one year at Washburn that if he couldn’t beat Kansas, he was going to join Kansas.
As a golfer.
“He ruined my basketball career in one night,” Woodland told Golf Channel in 2020 regarding Hinrich.
Woodland transferred from his hometown college to the much bigger school a half-hour east on Interstate 70.
“Fortunately, I had golf to fall back on,” he said.
Woodland won four tournaments with Kansas and turned pro in 2007.
He’s won four PGA Tour tournaments and earned more that $34 million in 362 career events.
‘I was shaking so bad’
Not even a month after last year’s Master’s, Woodland began feel the symptoms.
He called his doctor in search of medications, “just something to calm me down.”
He wasn’t eating. He was moody. He had memory loss. He was exhausted.
He was 39.
“I was having anxiety and I was having a lot of issues,” he said. “I was shaking so bad at the time, tremoring, that he’s like, ‘We have to rule out Parkinson’s. We have to roll.”
An MRI was scheduled. A lesion was discovered.
“Thank God he didn’t just give me something to calm me down,” Woodland said. “We checked the boxes and it came back with the tumor, and the rest has been history.”
‘The wins are something I’ll never forget’
Winning the U.S. Open was “a dream come true” for Woodland, who became the fourth tournament champion to score double-digits under par after his minus-13.
Winning the U.S. Open was, in some ways, a nightmare for Woodland, who was part of the U.S. Ryder Cup-winning team in 2019.
“Unfortunately, it brings a lot of expectations that I struggled with early,” he said. “But I feel really good about it. It’s a dream come true.”
But it beat the alternative for the husband and father of three boys, including twins.
In 2018, Woodland held the lead halfway through the PGA Championship before finishing sixth.
“The coming close hurts more,” he said. “I can tell you that you learn more from your failures than you do from the success.
“But ultimately, the wins are something I’ll never forget.”
Just like the fight he began winning last year.
