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Gary Woodland is back at Tour Championship after seven-year absence (Logan Whitton/USGA)
ATLANTA — There is no better feel-good story at this week’s Tour Championship than Gary Woodland. If you don’t have a rooting interest .. well, the 2019 U.S. Open champion is a good player to get behind.
By now, most golf fans know of Woodland’s physical and mental struggles.
A brain tumor that led to surgery in the fall of 2023 was bad enough. But the aftermath has been just as difficult, as Woodland acknowledged earlier this year that he’s been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can be quite the challenge for someone trying to hit golf shots with numerous people in his space.
“At the end of the day — and I’ve told my wife this — I’m not going to let this thing beat me,” Woodland said Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club, where the Tour Championship begins Thursday. “I worked my tail off to get to the PGA Tour and to be a professional athlete. I’m not going to let that go for something that’s out of my hands.
“I have the ability to get up and fight every day, and I’m going to do that. I have a lot of fight left in me. I believe I have a big career left ahead of me, and I’m not going to let this thing win. At the end of the day, I truly believe I can beat this thing. It’s not easy, but I’ll keep fighting every day to do it.”
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Woodland, 42, made it to the Tour Championship for the first time in seven years on the strength of a victory at the Texas Children’s Houston Open and five other top-10 finishes, including last week’s BMW Championship where a tie for fourth moved him from outside of the top 30 in FedEx Cup points to 18th.
It means his first Tour Championship start since 2019, the year he won the U.S. Open.
“It’s special. There’s no doubt about it,” he said about getting back the East Lake — a course he barely recognizes after its extensive 2024 makeover by Andrew Green. “It’s something that looked a long ways away to start the year. I’m proud of the way I fought. I’m proud to be here. This is a tribute not only to me, but to my team that have been with me.
“I couldn’t have done this on my own. I’ve got a massive team behind me. This is all the hard work and dedication that they’ve given me and supported me that allowed me to be in this position right now. It’s awesome.”
Along the way, there have been some heavy moments, along with a few lighter ones.
