{"id":552849,"date":"2026-03-29T19:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552849\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:21:15","slug":"gary-woodland-leads-in-houston-eyes-first-win-since-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/552849\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Woodland leads in Houston, eyes first win since U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

20H AGO<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4 Min Read<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Daily Wrap Up<\/p>\n

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Highlights | Round 3 | Texas Children’s Houston Open<\/p>\n

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A<\/p>\n

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Written by Staff <\/p>\n

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Gary Woodland had to play hard to stay in front Saturday in the Texas Children’s Houston Open, adding a pair of late birdies for a 5-under 65 that gave him a one-shot lead over Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard as he chases his first win since the 2019 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

Woodland and H\u00f8jgaard (63) were flawless in the final hour at Memorial Park and created some separation going into Sunday, with no one else closer than five shots.<\/p>\n

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Gary Woodland’s Round 3 highlights from Texas Children’s<\/p>\n

Woodland has become a popular figure in golf for the way he has handled his recovery from brain surgery in September 2023, and earlier this month opened up about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder during an emotional interview at THE PLAYERS Championship.<\/p>\n

His golf has looked as good as ever, with full control of his swing and full use of his athletic power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just got to take a deep breath,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cI\u2019ll have a good night ahead of me tonight to recover and rest, and tomorrow just don\u2019t get ahead of yourself. I\u2019m here, I put myself in this position for a reason, so take a deep breath and maintain what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodland was at 18-under 192, the first time he has held the 54-hole lead since that 2019 major title at Pebble Beach. He has been helped by a change in shafts in his irons, noticing he was losing a little control as his speed began to return.<\/p>\n

He was particularly strong down the stretch, and he had to be with H\u00f8jgaard chasing him. Woodland drilled a 2-iron over the water and onto the green at the par-5 16th \u2014 one of only five players to hit the green in two \u2014 for a two-putt birdie.<\/p>\n

\"Nicolai<\/p>\n

Nicolai H\u00f8jgaard converts birdie at Texas Children’s<\/p>\n

His drive on the reachable par-4 17th hit the bunker with such force that it hopped out onto the collar, and he pitched down to 5 feet for another birdie.<\/p>\n

H\u00f8jgaard was right there with him, hitting a nice chip on the 16th for a birdie and getting up-and-down from a bunker on the 17th for another one. The Dane got back into the mix with a 62 on Friday, and he was equally effective on Saturday with his 63. He has made 15 birdies and one eagle the last two rounds.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Min Woo Lee (67) and Michael Thorbjornsen (66) were five shots behind. Sunday is big for Thorbjornsen, who is No. 56 in the world. The top 50 after this week earn Masters invitations, and the Massachusetts native likely needs no better than eighth place.<\/p>\n

\"Min<\/p>\n

Min Woo Lee birdies drivable par 4 at Texas Children’s<\/p>\n

H\u00f8jgaard is still not in the Masters, though at No. 47, he is virtually a lock to stay in the top 50 barring a curious chain of events at Memorial Park.<\/p>\n

Woodland would need nothing short of a victory to get back to the Masters. Even a perk like that is secondary, considering all he has gone through.<\/a><\/p>\n

The surgery was to remove a big part of a lesion that was producing unfounded fears of dying. He returned to the PGA TOUR at the start of 2024, but only recently shared his struggles with PTSD, how he would begin crying in the middle of the round and sometimes hide in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

To share that publicly was an enormous relief for Woodland, who said earlier this week he felt \u201c1,000 pounds lighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the focus turns toward winning the Texas Children’s, where he came close last year as a runner-up. Woodland leads the field in approach to the green, and he is second in putting \u2014 a slightly new putter has helped with alignment.<\/p>\n

Facing him will be H\u00f8jgaard, who made his Ryder Cup debut in 2023 for Europe. His identical twin, Rasmus, already has qualified for the Masters.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Dane has three wins on the DP World Tour, including the DP World Tour Championship at the end of 2023. He has yet to win on the PGA TOUR.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it’s going to be a grind, you know it\u2019s going to come down to potentially the last few holes anyway,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you\u2019ve just got to stay in the fight and play your best and do your best and then let\u2019s see where we end up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mar 28, 2026<\/p>\n

Woodland surges to lead in Houston shortly after revealing PTSD diagnosis<\/a>Daily Wrap Up<\/a>\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"20H AGO 4 Min Read Daily Wrap Up *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Highlights | Round 3 | Texas Children’s Houston Open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-552849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}