PGA Tour star and former US Open winner Gary Woodland has revealed his heartbreaking battle with post-traumatic stress disorder almost three years on from life-or-death surgery on a brain tumor.
Woodland, 41, went under the knife in September 2023 and doctors were able to successfully remove a brain lesion, but he has now spoken out about the mental and emotional toll he has felt in the years since.
In an emotional interview with the Golf Channel on Monday, Woodland shared his struggles in remarkably honest detail, struggling to hold back tears as he explained he feels like he is ‘dying inside’ and ‘living a lie’ by keeping it a secret.
‘I can’t waste energy anymore hiding this,’ he told Rex Hoggard just three days out from the start of the Players Championship, one of the biggest tournaments on the golf calendar.
In a bid to explain his struggles with PTSD, Woodland explained a scenario that occurred during a recent round that left him crying in the middle of the fairway.
‘I was hyper-vigilant,’ he said. ‘A walking scorer startled me, got close to me from behind. I pulled my caddie and said, “You can’t let anybody get behind me.” Next thing you know, I couldn’t remember what I was doing. My eyesight started to get blurry.
Gary Woodland has lifted the lid on his intense battle with PTSD in the wake of brain surgery
The golf star, pictured with his family at Augusta National, admits he feels he is ‘dying inside’
‘It was my turn to hit and I couldn’t hit. Butch (caddie Brennan Little) said, “Let’s go in.” I said, “No man, I’m here for these guys. I want to fight through this.”
‘I went into every bathroom to cry the rest of the day. When I got done, I got in my car and got out of there. There are days when it’s tough – crying in the scoring trailer, running to my car just to hide it. I don’t want to live that way anymore.’
In the months since, Woodland says he has worked closely with the PGA Tour to put security protocols in place that allow him to feel safer while on the course.
Last week he played in front of thousands of fans at the Cognizant Classic, and prior to that he finished T64 in the rowdiest tournament of the season at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
‘I hope somebody that’s struggling sees me out here still fighting and battling and trying to live my dreams,’ Woodland added in his interview with the Golf Channel.
‘I’ve talked to veterans, and one thing I’ve heard from multiple people is you can’t do this on your own, no matter how strong you think you are.’
Woodland is a major winner, having lifted the US Open at Pebble Beach back in June 2019
The golfer revealed he often has to leave his family to lie in a dark room to calm his brain
He went on to reveal that doctors have recommended he avoid high-stress environments, but that he is insistent he will not step away from the limelight and away from professional golf.
‘In an ideal world I’m probably not playing,’ he said. ‘But in an ideal world I don’t have this. This [playing golf] is my dream.’
Woodland was the 2019 US Open winner at Pebble Beach, beating out Brooks Koepka by three strokes and claiming his first – and so far, only – major title.
It was four years later that he announced to the world that he had a brain tumor that required surgery. After years of medications and treatments, he had to go under the knife.
Before the operation, he wrote a letter to his three children – son Jaxson and twin daughters Maddox and Lennox – giving them the support they might need if the worst were to happen and he didn’t make it.
‘Daddy’s got a big team around him. They’re your team now,’ Woodland’s words read – according to Don Riddell of CNN. ‘There’s a lot of people that will be here for you.’
Speaking at the Players Championship, he struggled to hold back his tears during the interview
Woodland says he has worked with the PGA Tour to increase security when he is playing
He said that writing that letter was ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it’s something I’m glad I did.’
The operation was a success. Surgeons performed a craniotomy – cutting a baseball-sized hole in the left side of his head to remove as much of the tumor as possible. The cut was replaced by a titanium plate.
Woodland says that before the surgery, he was experiencing a number of debilitating symptoms as the tumor continued to grow on his brain.
He says he experienced growing anxiety and fear, trouble focusing, and decreased energy. Doctors say he was experiencing seizures and that the growth was on his amygdala – the part of the brain that triggers fear and anxiety responses.
Woodland’s caddie recently lent him his sunglasses to hide his tears in the middle of a round
Woodland managed to play through it after the diagnosis was made. He says that he woke up with a jolt due to unfounded fears at the Mexico Open, but continued to make cuts on the tour.
But he added that the symptoms began impacting his life away from the ropes.
‘It was tough on my wife [Gabby], my three little kids,’ he recalled. ‘When they got excited, I had to leave the room because my brain couldn’t handle the stimulation. They don’t understand why I have to go lay in the bed in a dark room to slow everything down. That was devastating for me.’
He added: ‘My wife had to make sure I was OK every day and she had to raise them. On top of that, I’m still trying to play golf. It was tough.’
