ORLANDO, Fla. — Gary Woodland returned to the PGA Tour four months after doctors had to cut a baseball-sized hole in his head to remove a lesion on his brain that caused unfounded fears of dying.
He felt fortunate to still be playing golf, and the emotions were strong.
Turns out the 2019 U.S. Open champion was coping with much more at the 2024 Sony Open.
He received a phone call from his mother on the Saturday before that event that his father, Dan, had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma. It’s been a lot, and that’s what makes playing in the PNC Championship so special.
“This is a special week for both of us for perspective,” Woodland said.
Woodland and his father are newcomers to the 36-hole event that pairs major champions with a family member. There are 20 teams and a long waiting list to get in. Woodland was thrilled to get an invitation, which was followed by a memorable phone call to his father in Kansas.
“I can’t think of a better way to start the holidays. Got the whole family here — the grandkids here, my daughter’s here, my wife’s here. I’m excited,” Dan Woodland said, his voice at times cracking.
He had five months of chemotherapy — six days in the hospital every three weeks — and was able to ring the cancer-free bell late last year.
“I can tell you, I’ve hit more golf balls the last month-and-a-half than I have the last 25 years,” Dan said. “But how can you turn this opportunity down? It’s awesome.”
The format is a scramble — both players each hit from the best shot — so this two-day tournament on network television (NBC) will be more about fun than pressure Saturday and Sunday. It began as the Father-Son Challenge, a chance to see the children of major champions and has morphed in other family members.
Annika Sorenstam is playing with her son, 14-year-old Will, who beat her for the first time this summer during a round at Turnberry. Steve Stricker is playing with daughter, Izzi, a sophomore at Wisconsin who won the Wisconsin Women’s Amateur and Match Play Championship this year.
Woodland said he has been watching this event for years, and when he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach six years ago, “one of the first things that came to mind was that we’d have an opportunity to play in this.”
So it’s a celebration of being a major champion, and for Woodland, a celebration of much more.
Woodland still is in recovery mode, and while he’s not back to where he wants to me, there were some small successes. He narrowly made the PGA Tour postseason, missing the FedEx Cup playoffs by two spots at No. 72. He made it to his first Ryder Cup as an assistant to U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, a popular choice among the players.
“I’m still healing,” Woodland said. “At the end of the day, I’ve still got a tumor in my head on my brain. It hasn’t grown in two years, so we’re good with that, but it’s in a part of the brain that causes me a lot of issues, and I’m still battling and grinding with it.
“The surgeons and doctors are happy with where I’m at, but I have a long way to go”.
There are times he needs a dark room and quiet, not always easy to find with 8-year-old Jaxson and 6-year-old twin daughters Maddox and Lennox.
“It’s a learning process every day,” he said. “I’ve taken off the last couple months to focus more on my health to hopefully … it’s a long year, and try to battle and get through it. It’s getting better. It’s still a long way from where we want it to be.”
As athletic as anyone on the PGA Tour, he was a three-sport star in high school who eventually had to choose among baseball, basketball and golf. His father thought baseball was his best sport and basketball was his greatest love.
“And here we are playing golf,” Dan said with a laugh, as his wife sat to the side using her phone to take video of their interview.
Woodland’s parents got to some 15 tournaments a year when Woodland was a rookie, not as many now. However, they were at Pebble Beach when he drilled a 3-wood onto the par-5 14th green in the final round in 2019, and when he hit a flop shot off the green to the other side on the 17th for a par saved that sealed it. His father missed the iconic lob wedge on the 17th.
“I was heading to 18,” he said. “But to watch that last putt go in … incredible.”
It’s what brought him to the PNC Championship, nearly two years after his cancer diagnosis, nearly two years after his son returned from brain surgery.
A special week, indeed.