Former Jayhawk Gary Woodland’s remarkable comeback from brain surgery continues
Former University of Kansas golfer Gary Woodland, the winner of the 2019 U.S. Open, will continue his remarkable comeback from brain surgery at next week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, PGAtour.com reported Friday.
Woodland, a 39-year-old Topeka native, committed to play in the Sony Open prior to Friday’s 4 p.m., deadline, the PGA announced on Friday. He had surgery on Sept. 18 to extract a brain lesion. He had first attempted to treat the condition with medicine, he said in an August post on X, eventually deciding to undergo surgery in what he called ““the best course of action.”
The Sony Open is the PGA’s first full-field event of the 2024 PGA Tour golf calendar. It will be contested Thursday-Sunday at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
“This journey has been very hard but I’m extremely thankful to be progressing and for the unconditional love and support from everyone,” Woodland said in a November post on social media site X. “You’ve all made this process a little easier for me and my family. Thank you to everyone and I look forward to seeing you all next year.”
Woodland will be participating in his first tournament since the Wyndham Championship last August. He placed in a tie for 27th.
Woodland, according to PGAtour.com, made 18 cuts in 24 starts last season. He placed 94th on the FedExCup. He has won four tournaments, including the Open. He’s had 54 top-10 finishes on the tour.
His best finish at the Sony Open is a tie for third in 2015.
Woodland played basketball as a freshman at Washburn University (2002-03) before transferring to KU to play golf.
“I mean, the moment really got forced on me,” Woodland told golf.com. “I went to school to Washburn to play basketball, and I always believed if basketball didn’t work out I could fall back on golf. And our first game we played Kansas at the University of Kansas. They were ranked No. 1 in Division I, and we were ranked No. 2 in Division II.
“And that decision got forced on me really quickly. I was guarding Kirk Hinrich, and, like, OK, I need to find something else, because this ain’t gonna work. And that was my first game in college. I was a two-time state champion, All-State, blah, blah, blah, but that was a different level.”
KU coach Bill Self, a friend of Woodland, had this to say in 2019 after Woodland won the U.S. Open: “I think this is one of the coolest things that’s happened to Kansas athletics, because golf is a sport all alumni and donors can identify with because everybody at some point in time has played it or hopes to play it and they can play it until they are 70, 75 years old. I think everybody is really proud because they can identify with what he does.
“First time I played with him we were playing No. 1 at LCC (Lawrence Country Club). It’s a 365-yard hole. He landed on the green and made a 20-footer for 2. I’m thinking he played that like a par-3. He has a different gear nobody else can get to,” Self added.
Of Self, Woodland told pgatour.com: “He knows everything I do. He’s on ShotTracker every day. So, if I’m messing up, there’s usually a text coming my way. ... So he keeps up on me. He’s hard on me, so I need to make sure I play well, so I don’t hear from him.”
According to ESPN.com, Will Zalatoris, the former seventh-ranked golfer in the world, will make his first start next week since the WGC-Match Play event last March. Zalatoris underwent a microdiscectomy on his back April 8, 2023. Zalatoris did compete in the 20-player Hero World Challenge event in December. He shot scores of 81-68-79-71 to finish 11 over.
