It was a club twirl that spoke loud and clear. Gary Woodland had 259 yards over the water on the par-5 16th on Saturday at Memorial Park. He was up by one shot in the Texas Children’s Houston Open and looking to step on the gas.

The 41-year-old pulled 2-iron and rifled a high shot into the middle of the green to give himself a smooth two-putt birdie. Woodland’s body language didn’t reveal if he liked the shot or not. But then … the emphatic club twirl.

It was the sound of that 2-iron that produced gushing thoughts from on-course commentator Jim “Bones” Mackay. “There are some beautiful things in this great game of golf,” he said, “but that was one of the more beautiful sounds I’ve heard a club make against a golf ball in my 35 years out here.”

The sound. The club twirl. 😍

Gary Woodland knew he striped this 2-iron on No. 16. pic.twitter.com/6JJy9Cdzhf

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) March 28, 2026

A few years ago, Woodland might not have gone for the green in that circumstance—and certainly wouldn’t have felt overly confident standing over the shot. He’d lost much of the pop that had made him one of the most powerful hitters on tour.

But he’s back now, feeling better physically and mentally than he has in years. Woodland has put in the work after reuniting with his longtime coach, Randy Smith. He switched to a new Scotty Cameron putter a few weeks ago and another coach, Phil Kenyon, found an aiming flaw in his putting. He revealed his battle with PTSD after brain surgery. And this week he felt confident enough to return to his old iron shafts.

The cumulative result: Everything has come together for Woodland so that he can fully believe in himself again, and that’s a powerful place to be. By shooting five- under-par 65 on Saturday, the 2019 U.S. Open champ heads into the final round with a one-shot lead over 25-year-old Danish star Nicolai Hojgaard, whose last two rounds of 62-63 are the lowest back-to-back scores in tournament history. Beyond them, the next-closest pursuers are six off the lead.

“I’ll credit Randy,” Woodland said after the second round. “I didn’t hit it well there for about three, four years. I went back to him a year and a half ago. … He pretty much called me soft, told me I was kind of guiding it, and that’s not ever how I played in my whole life.

“He wanted me to get back to swinging hard and aggressive, kind of playing to my strengths. It’s been a process to get there, but we’re starting to swing at it again like I used to, I think. Definitely comes with some confidence.”

After an opening bogey in the third round, Woodland made seven birdies, including those at 16 and 17. He has been impressively sharp in all aspects, gaining more than seven strokes in approach (thanks to hitting 84 percent of the greens in regulation) and six strokes in putting.

The performance with his irons is certainly tied to the change he made this week to his shafts. As noted this week by Golf Digest equipment editor E. Michael Johnson, Woodland switched back to the KBS C-Taper 130 shafts that he previously used in some of his best seasons. Woodland said he’d made the previous change last year because his speed had dropped and he was looking for something more forgiving.

“My speed’s back and I put those babies back in, and it was nice,” Woodland said.

Once considered one of the game’s true bombers, the 6-foot-1 Woodland lost speed and power in the aftermath of his September 2023 brain surgery to remove a benign lesion. Over the last two seasons, he’d averaged 313 yards on drives, putting him in the high teens in the tour rankings.

The change has been remarkable this year. Woodland has gained 12 yards on his average and currently ranks No. 1. And how about this? At 41, Woodland is leading the tour in clubhead speed at 127.68 mph.

Woodland called Saturday’s round a “good fight” because he got too quick with his tempo early. He thought of Smith’s admonitions.

“I could hear him yelling at me,” Woodland said. “I’ve been playing so nice the last week really altogether, so I took a step back and told myself, didn’t run too far away from me, it’s close in there, so slow down a little bit. I probably dialed it back a little bit off the tee, and then once I started to get the feel of it, I was able to ramp it back up on the back nine.”

Woodland has only closed out one 54-hole lead, and that was in his U.S. Open triumph at Pebble Beach, when he led Justin Rose by one and closed with a 69 to beat Brooks Koepka by three.

He hasn’t won since, so there’s a pent-up desire to get the job done again that is being steeled by the return of self-belief.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com