‘Still Battling, Still on Medication’: Gary Woodland’s Struggles Far From Over Despite Miraculous Brain Surgery

Things are slowly coming around for Gary Woodland. The 40-year-old Kansas native fired 6-under 64 at the second round of the Charles Schwab Challenge, his lowest since coming back from surgery. Before this, the former US Open Champion has missed the cut seven times in his last 13 starts.

The comeback wasn’t the fairytale entry of Woodland 2.0 some thought it would be. He missed three straight cuts. Woodland feels, that perhaps he rushed it a little. The four-time PGA Tour winner said, “Charlotte [venue of the Wells Fargo Championship] was the first week I went back to where I had a tournament where I had symptoms the year before and it was eye opening for me just to be, like, I don’t feel great, but I don’t feel like I did a year ago.”

Quizzed on how bad the symptoms were at Wells Fargo, Woodland explained what separates this year’s trip to Charlotte from last year’s. “It is what it is, but it’s just not what it was. I’m still battling, still on medication.” But the 40-year-old is more positive about it than last year. 

A year back, Woodland was on a slow descent to hell. Anxiety and fear of death gripped him. He woke up at midnight with a feeling of looming death hovering over his shoulder. His family, his children, Woodland felt he would lose them all. Eventually, Gary Woodland had to undergo brain surgery. Doctors made a baseball-sized cut on his brain to remove a lesion. He came back on the greens 115 days later.

But it wasn’t until the Wells Fargo Championship, where he was T38, that the veteran realized how fast it had been. That, sort of, was the lightbulb moment for Woodland. He still had a job to do. Other than the T21 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, the veteran hasn’t been in the mix. In fact, at the Colonial, Gary Woodland opened with 2-over 70. 

However, the four-time PGA Tour winner shifted gears on the cut day. Starting on the back nine, Woodland birdied the first three holes. Picking up another birdie and two bogeys, he made the turn at 33. An eagle on the par-3, 1st was followed by his third bogey of the round. But Woodland went 3-under in his last five holes to safely move inside the cutline of 2-over. While reviewing his round, the PGA Tour Pro, though, wanted to temper optimism with a sense of palpable reality.

Gary Woodland weighs in on his performance

The 2019 US Open champion feels that he ‘put everything together’ in the second round. Gary Woodland led the field at Colonial in strokes gained (6.620) on Friday. A chunk of that came from putting. He rolled 95 feet of putt, gaining 3.243 strokes against the field, the third best in the cut day. Woodland was also 13th in strokes gained: around the green.

“I think I was getting down on myself just because I didn’t feel well. There’s a lot to be positive about because I’m in a different position than I was a year ago,” Gary Woodland told the media persons after the second round. The Kansas native is T12 after 36 holes at the Charles Schwab Challenge, where he has one top-10 before from his four appearances. But Woodland has ‘no doubt’ that his positive energy will translate into his game on the weekend.