{"id":553652,"date":"2026-03-30T05:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553652\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:38:08","slug":"gary-woodland-is-still-fighting-but-on-this-day-he-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553652\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Woodland is still fighting, but on this day, he won"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Woodland might not be done fighting, but on this day, he won the battle, able to lift both hands in the air, look up to the sky and say to himself, I did it.<\/p>\n

Woodland captured the Texas Children\u2019s Houston Open by five shots on Sunday at Memorial Park, turning in a performance that rivaled, maybe even eclipsed Woodland\u2019s 2019 U.S. Open victory. \u201cThis is probably, top to bottom, as good as I\u2019ve played,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cI was just in complete control this week.\u201d That stats backed that up, as Woodland led the field by gaining over eight shots with the putter, and just one competitor hit more greens in regulation than the 41-year-old Woodland, who was also seventh in driving distance at over 321 yards a pop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew physically the game was as good as it\u2019s ever been,\u201d Woodland added. \u201cI just had to fight through some other battles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentally, Woodland\u2019s first win in nearly seven years was most remarkable, as it came just weeks after Woodland revealed in a one-on-one interview with Golf Channel\u2019s Rex Hoggard his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he\u2019d been diagnosed with in early 2025, about a year and a half after undergoing surgery to remove a lesion from his brain. \u201cInside, I feel like I\u2019m dying, and I feel like I\u2019m living a lie,\u201d shared Woodland, who hoped that by sharing his struggles with the world, he could focus that energy on more important aspects of his recovery, like slowing his heart rate and calming his mind. If it gave him that little bit extra to save one shot per round or spend five more minutes with his wife, Gabby, and kids at home, it was worth it.<\/p>\n

This week required everything Woodland had in the tank.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

‘Gary! Gary! Gary!’ Woodland celebrates emotional win at Houston Open<\/p>\n

Gary Woodland received support throughout the week at Memorial Park but no chants were louder than the ones he got when he sank his putt for par on the 18th hole, completing an emotional career comeback from brain tumor surgery. Woodland raised his arms into the sky in celebration before breaking down in an embrace his wife, Gabby.<\/p>\n

Two days before signing for a closing, 3-under 67 and a 21-under week, Woodland sat inside the scoring trailer at Memorial Park in tears. It was a situation in which Woodland, unfortunately, was all too familiar with. Last fall in Napa, Woodland experienced a terrifying bout of hyper-vigilance, a walking scorer startling him from behind. Woodland froze, his eyesight blurry and unable to hit his next shot. His caddie, Brennan Little, recommended he withdraw, but Woodland eventually fought on, though not without spending the rest of the round bouncing among portable bathrooms to cry and upon finishing, immediately rushing to his car to hide.<\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s 63, Woodland\u2019s best round of the tournament, he again got \u201cextremely hyper-vigilant,\u201d set off this time by some spectators getting too close behind the ninth tee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you this, if it wasn\u2019t for Tour security and my security, Zach, this week, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m sitting here right now,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cI was a wreck the last 10 holes of that day. I got into scoring, Zach got close to me, Tour security was visual, so I saw them, so they calmed me down. I got into scoring, I bawled my eyes out, I reset and was able to come back out and take care of stuff after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodland composed himself enough to do media that afternoon, fielding eight questions, including one asking him what it would mean to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a long ways from that,\u201d Woodland responded.<\/p>\n

Now, though, Woodland can provide an answer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary Woodland won the Houston Open on Sunday, an emotional moment that seemed so improbable 30 months ago when he had brain surgery, and even two weeks ago when he opened up about his frightening struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust thankful,\u201d said Woodland, whose victory also qualified him for the Masters<\/a> in two weeks; he\u2019d snapped his streak of 12 straight at Augusta National last year. \u201cI\u2019m blessed to be able to chase my dreams, there\u2019s no doubt about that. I know it\u2019s hard, but life\u2019s hard, right? Everybody\u2019s battling something. I\u2019ve told myself the whole time, I wasn\u2019t going to let this thing in my head win. From when I was diagnosed with this thing on my brain, the whole thing was I wasn\u2019t going to let it win. Today was evidence of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Woodland walked down the 18th fairway in Houston, victory firmly in hand, Woodland\u2019s playing competitors, Nicolai Hojgaard and Min Woo Lee, hung back, with Hojgaard explaining afterward, \u201cWe thought it was appropriate to let him have his moment.\u201d Lee was then shown about 25 yards behind Woodland, gesturing with both hands in an attempt to further pump up the crowd as it cheered on their soon-to-be champion.<\/p>\n

More battles are surely in Woodland\u2019s future, but as this week proved, he won\u2019t have to go at them by himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what, we play an individual sport out here, but I wasn\u2019t alone today,\u201d Woodland said. \u201cI got a lot of people behind me, my team, my family and this golf world. Anybody that\u2019s struggling with something, I hope they see me and don\u2019t give up, just keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Woodland might not be done fighting, but on this day, he won the battle, able to lift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-553652","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\/553652","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=553652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}