{"id":470010,"date":"2026-03-11T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470010\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:21:11","slug":"gary-woodland-shares-his-struggles-with-ptsd-following-brain-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470010\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Woodland Shares His Struggles With PTSD Following Brain Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Two years after\u00a0Gary Woodland returned to the PGA Tour following brain surgery<\/a>, he still struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder so severe there have been times when he was in tears in the middle of the fairway.<\/p>\n

He chose to share his PTSD diagnosis with Golf Channel on Monday at\u00a0The Players Championship<\/a>\u00a0in an emotional interview, saying he\u2019s determined to stop hiding behind the difficulty of his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t waste energy anymore hiding this, and I\u2019m blessed with a lot of support out here on the tour,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cEveryone\u2019s just been amazing. Every week I come out and everyone\u2019s so excited and happy that I\u2019m back. \u2026 And I appreciate that love and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut inside, I feel like I\u2019m dying, and I feel like I\u2019m living a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodland shared one incident of being hypervigilant. He said he was spooked by a walking scorer who came up too closely behind him during the Procore Championship last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my turn to hit and I couldn\u2019t hit,\u201d Woodland said.<\/p>\n

His caddie gave him a pair of sunglasses to hide the tears, and Woodland said he would go into bathrooms to cry. He finished the round, went straight to his car and left.<\/p>\n

Woodland says he hoped that sharing his struggles can reach others who are dealing with PTSD.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve talked to veterans, and one thing I\u2019ve heard from multiple people is you can\u2019t do this on your own, no matter how strong you think you are,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a lot of fight in me and I\u2019m not going to let this thing win. But it\u2019s been hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surgery was in September 2023 after doctors discovered a lesion on a part of the brain that caused unfounded feelings of fear that he was dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to live my dreams and be successful out here,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cBut I want to help people, too. I realize now I\u2019ve got to help myself first \u2014 and hopefully this is the first step in doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The island and the drop zone<\/p>\n

Tommy Fleetwood prepares for\u00a0The Players Championship<\/a>\u00a0like he does most tournaments, chipping and putting to different pins, testing how the golf ball reacts out of the rough. He also is among the very few who will take a shot from the drop zone on the island-green 17th.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taboo for so many players who don\u2019t want to practice a shot they have no intention of hitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I\u2019m not planning on hitting it in the water,\u201d Fleetwood said. \u201cBut at the same time, the hole has enough mental challenges that if you do hit it in the water, you just want to be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 balls have missed the island on the notorious par 3 since the PGA Tour began tracking shots with its ShotLink technology, not all from the drop zone. Sometimes the best play is simply to re-tee on the hole that listed at 141 yards on the card.<\/p>\n

The drop zone is about 80 yards, depending on the pin. It\u2019s not always an easier shot. Is it worth practicing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d former Players champion Justin Leonard said so quickly he made it sound as if there was no other logical answer. \u201cAnd if a caddie ever let you see him shooting the pin, he should be fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly it\u2019s psychological, not wanting to even imagine being in that position. The first time Tiger Woods played Oakmont in a practice round in 2007, a group of guests wanted him to try a shot from the church pew bunkers. Woods laughed and declined.<\/p>\n

Collin Morikawa said practicing from the drop zone \u2014 whether it\u2019s the island green at the TPC Sawgrass or anywhere else \u2014 could tempt a player to try a shot he might not be able to pull off when it actually counts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re hitting from the drop zone, unfortunately you\u2019re probably just going to make 5,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not trying to do anything fancy because that\u2019s when it starts to add up. You\u2019ve hit it in the water, try to get cute to a front pin or a back left pin and you\u2019re in the water again.\u201d<\/p>\n

JT the meteorologist<\/p>\n

When it comes to weather, Justin Thomas is leaving nothing to chance.<\/p>\n

Rain is in the forecast at The Players Championship for the first and final rounds. That can change because it\u2019s weather. Thomas was asked how much he pays attention to the forecast, and he answered by pulling out his phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have six weather apps,\u201d he said as he scrolled through the home page. \u201cThe Weather Channel app is just kind of my standard weather app, but The Weather Bug is my optimistic weather app. I\u2019m a huge weather optimist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key to the weather for players is not so much the precipitation but the wind direction, which can make a golf course play entirely different.<\/p>\n

And with a clothes horse like Thomas, it has other purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will look at the weather probably in advance more so for packing purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rory\u2019s redux<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy\u00a0returned to Augusta National<\/a>\u00a0late last year without his clubs, mainly to work on a documentary to be released March 30 on Prime. It gave him a chance to see the champions locker room (he is sharing with Raymond Floyd and the late Ben Hogan) and relive some memories.<\/p>\n

He played it for the first time a few weeks ago with his father and club chairman Fred Ridley, and he tried to replicate his famous 7-iron that he took around the tree and over the water to about 6 feet on the par-5 15th.<\/p>\n

This time it turned out even better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI nearly pitched it in the hole. It was actually a better shot than I hit in the tournament. It was actually unbelievable, I wish I could have got it on camera,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cJust sort of went to the back edge of the green.\u201d<\/p>\n

That he hit 7-iron again was interesting because Augusta National is typically softer and longer in March than it is during the Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little stronger this year. I\u2019ve put in a bit of work in the gym,\u201d McIlroy said with a grin.<\/p>\n

This was one day before he\u00a0withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a>\u00a0after tweaking his back in the gym.<\/p>\n

Divots<\/p>\n

Champions Golf Club in Houston has been awarded the 2029 U.S. Senior Women\u2019s Open and the 2040 U.S. Senior Open, along with the 2034 U.S. Mid-Amateur. It last hosted the U.S. Women\u2019s Open in December 2020. The last time Champions held the top men was in the 2003 Tour Championship. \u2026 The Standard Portland Classic on the LPGA is offering exemptions to the winners of the U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur, the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur, the British Women\u2019s Amateur and the NCAA champion. It will be the first time the winners of those events are invited to the same LPGA tournament. \u2026 Scottie Scheffler tied for 24th at Bay Hill and surpassed eight-time winner Tiger Woods on the Arnold Palmer Invitational\u2019s all-time money list.<\/p>\n

Stat of the week<\/p>\n

Jordan Spieth shared the 54-hole lead and tied for fourth in his debut at The Players Championship in 2014. He has not finished higher than a tie for 19th since then.<\/p>\n

Final word<\/p>\n

\u201cJust never been thanked for playing an event before.\u201d \u2014 Brooks Koepka, whose\u00a0return to the PGA Tour<\/a>\u00a0stipulates that two players are added to the field at tournaments he plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Two years after\u00a0Gary Woodland returned to the PGA Tour following brain surgery,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-470010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}