Gary Woodland jolted awake at midnight grabbing the mattress. A vivid recollection of him dying after falling from the sky clouded his brain. When he arrived at the 2023 Mexico Open, those visions intensified. Sometimes, he’d feel as if the overhead bin would crash and kill him while flying. Sometimes, he’d imagine his car crashing while driving, his skull cracked in half. Throughout the next month, the golfer then started experiencing chills. His hands would often tremble, and a lack of energy would prevent him from even getting off the bed. Soon after, the 2019 US Open champion booked a doctor’s appointment. And the revelations would change his life…

An MRI scan ruled out a Parkinson’s diagnosis. Instead, it appeared to be a tumor pressing on the part of his brain that controls fear and anxiety. The jolts? They were partial seizures, as revealed by the doctor. “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,’” the golfer had recalled. But Woodland didn’t stop despite the side effects and memory loss, induced by the medication. “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.’ Didn’t have the focus or the energy,” Woodland had revealed of the time when he was playing several PGA Tour events while awaiting surgery. The 40-year-old, notably, competed at the PGA Championship feeling nauseous the whole time. It was then that his caddie, Brennan Little, decided to intervene. He’d pulled the golfer aside and asked him to “go get help”. That help finally came in September with a surgery and renewed hope.

Despite doctors warning him of losing his eyesight, and paralysis, the golfer was hopeful, thankful, and relieved that the storm had passed. Yet, he had been carrying the weight of his diagnosis for months. He was battling the physical, emotional, and mental toll of his condition while trying to play. During the 3M Open that year, Justin Thomas appeared as a lifeline amid the struggle. Woodland recalled the same in a recent episode of the Fore Play Golf podcast.

It was a simple question Thomas had directed toward his colleague—“How are you doing?”—that broke through the walls he had built around his emotions. Gary Woodland got emotional as he shared how he had kept everything inside for four months. He hadn’t told anyone about the full weight of what he was going through until that moment when Thomas offered an open ear. “I had held it in for four months and hadn’t said it to anybody,” Woodland said, his voice cracking with emotion. That conversation marked the beginning of an unexpected but deeply meaningful friendship between the two, with Thomas providing Woodland not just support but an emotional release when he needed it the most. And this is not the only time when Thomas proved his true character…

Bud Cauley and Justin Thomas crossed paths in college, but their connection didn’t form until after they turned pro. Cauley, who turned pro in his senior year, never had the chance to team up with Thomas during college events. However, their bond developed later as they found common ground with other golfers in their late 20s, including Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein, and Patrick Reed. Having attended Alabama, the two even shared a room on Tour, further solidifying their close friendship. Their bond blossomed all the more after he moved to Florida, close to JT’s house. During THE PLAYERS’ Championship press conference, Cauley revealed more…

“You could put us in any situation,” Cauley said of their bond, “and we’d have fun.” Both are passionate Alabama fans, and they often make trips to Tuscaloosa for football games when they’re not practicing at The Bears Club or Medalist G.C. during breaks at home. When asked about their friendship at the PLAYERS Championship, the 35-year-old spoke highly of it.

“Yeah, it’s been great. J.T. and I are close friends and play a lot together at home. Our families hang out a lot now. It’s been great. He’s had an amazing career, and I try to pick his brain sometimes when I can if we’re out playing. But even more than that, it’s not even golf-specific. It’s just we talk more about life and stuff like that than we do about golf,” he said. Notably, despite their strong friendship and good chemistry as roommates and teammates at the University of Alabama, Justin Thomas and Bud Cauley were unable to translate that bond into success in the 2017 Zurich Classic, where they missed the cut.

Life has given a lot for Bud Cauley to be grateful for. He cherishes his life, and well, let’s just say that Justin Thomas’s support of him has made their friendship only grow closer.

Justin Thomas could not play when Bud Cauley had an accident

Bud Cauley said he was “thankful to be alive” after a car accident in 2018, describing it as “the scariest night of my life.” Cauley, then 28, was in a car with three others. This took a toll on JT as well, as he had a tough time playing after the accident. “It calmed me a lot after seeing him,” Thomas had said. “I couldn’t hit a shot, couldn’t play a hole, without thinking about him.” Thomas finished at T8 that year, having carded 11 under.

Notably, the golfer had suffered six broken ribs, a collapsed right lung, and a fractured left leg. Despite receiving surgery that same year, the danger was far from over. Just two years later, in 2020, a series of complications—Cauley’s bones had started growing over the plates leading to more surgeries—forced him to step away. It wasn’t until 2024 that the veteran finally returned, and his buddy couldn’t be more ecstatic…

“I’m so, so excited Bud is back. He’s one of my best friends in the world … I’m really happy and proud of him because I know he’s had a lot of time and thinking of, ‘Is this going to ever get fixed, is it going to be cured, am I going to play golf again?’. I know how good Bud is and I know his raw talent. I just wanted to keep him positive and keep telling him because my thing. I always said is it’s going to work out … just time will heal,” Justin Thomas said after Bud returned.

Bud Cauley’s recovery and determination to get back to the PGA Tour is inspiring, and it’s a reminder of how quickly life can change. Let’s continue to follow his journey and support the golfers who face such challenges both on and off the course…