Gary Woodland set for emotional return in Sony Open after brain surgery | Golf Today | Golf Channel

Gary Woodland tells Todd Lewis of his journey back to the PGA Tour after brain surgery, including the harrowing fear he experienced throughout the process and the support from family and the golf world along the way. #GolfChannel #GolfToday #GaryWoodland
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Gary Woodland set for emotional return in Sony Open after brain surgery | Golf Today | Golf Channel
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And here are some of the notables in the field ludvig oer who got somewhat of a sober Awakening last week when he struggled a little bit at capala Brian Haron the open Champion sewu Kim who’s a defending title holder and there’s one name there Damon that’s getting a lot of

Attention this week you’re not kidding that of course Gary Woodland returning to professional golf at the Sony Open in Hawaii where he made his first PJ tour start by the way back in 2009 it’ll be his first start on the PGA tour since undergoing brain surgery back back in

September then an update was posted to his platforms on social media following that surgery in September saying most of the tumor had been removed grateful and thankful and how remarkable was this by November Gary Wen a major champ was back up hitting golf balls again and posting

This to social media this journey has been very hard but I’m extremely thankful to be progressing and for the unconditional love and support from everyone you’ve all made this process a little easier for me and my family thank you to everyone I look forward to seeing

You all next year and for more on this inspiring St we say hello to Todd Lewis at the Sony you had a chance to catch up with Gary Woodland yes Damon and it was quite inspirational I want to go uh take you back to last spring just a couple of

Weeks after the Masters and Gary felt the first symptoms trimmers he called them jolts and ultimately they were mild seizures they were followed by dizziness nauseousness um lack of focus a lack of energy and ultimately after Consulting with doctors and having an MRI it was discovered that he had a lesion on his

Brain now they originally tried to treat that with medication But ultimately his doctor said we have to remove that lesion so he went into surgery last September and it was a very risky surgery they cut a hole in a skull basically the size of a baseball and

Then remove the lesion and then put a titanium plate back to cover up that hole as I mentioned it was a risky surgy surgy he could have lost his sight he could have had partial paralysis or even worse but he recovered beautifully and remarkably four months later he is back

Out on the PGA tour competing this week in the Sony Open I had a chance to talk to Gary yesterday and he talked about the road back to doing what he loves to do and being surrounded by those who love him Gary first SE his grave seat back um

I do want to go back to last year you said you were having symptoms of partial seizures yeah um jolting you were fatigued memory loss I’ve known you for a long time you’ve been a very positive optimistic person what was your attitude when all that was happening and you were talking

To doctors it was awful um cuz it was just new for me that’s it wasn’t myself and to like I said to be 39 years old and all of a sudden you don’t feel like yourself when you’ve it was it was horrible and luckily Gabby was there with me um my

Team knew what was I was going through so they were very supportive but it was something we couldn’t stop either I mean I was this was an everyday occurrence the fear and anxiety I was dealing with um just wouldn’t go away and so fortunately with the meds the seizures

Started to go away but that didn’t help the symptoms I was dealing with and it was uh golf was a little break when I could fight through it when I could play but it was uh it was something I hopefully I never experience again it’s a powerful emotion fear how would you

Describe that fear awful I mean uh fear for love death everything was death it was doomsday um end of the world and it was everything from whether I was driving a car getting on an airplane um my kids are playing just you know a candle’s lit in the in the kitchen I’m

Like babe the house is going to burn down you know and it was it was awful and the golf fear came you know if I jolted in the middle of the night before a round wake up with a seizure and I’m like oh oh my gosh I’m not going to play

Golf I can’t playl golf today and getting nauseous getting so worked up my brain’s going so fast start getting sick um show up at a golf tournament not have the focus to play forget what club I’m hitting um fortunately I was I was practicing and playing good golf I just

Wasn’t able to sustain it but surgery helped that’s gone away let me stop you there I’m sure you had fear going into the surgery when you woke up from that surgery how would you describe those emotions I was overwhelmed with thankfulness love um my wife was

Standing in front of me when I woke up I was two days in the hospital before I got to see my kids when I got home obviously when in the US Open I wanted to see my dad I wanted to get there I was on Father’s Day I wanted to hug my

Dad when I was able to hug my kids after surgery I don’t I don’t think there’s anything better how would you describe the love and support you had since recovery and even before the surgery it’s been overwhelming the the golf world has really rallied it’s been absolutely amazing we’re obviously in an individual

Sport we’re out here battling with each other every week it’s felt like everyone’s a team everyone’s a family the being out here seeing the guys again I haven’t seen a lot of guys I’ve seen you know Ricky and some guys back home who have been amazing um but it’s been

Overwhelming the love and support not only for me but for my family my family’s this has been a hard process on me but it’s been harder on my family and my team who have been there with me and had to experience this firsthand um the love and support we’ve had from everyone

Is has helped us get through this I know you got a positive person in the camp at Butch Haron what’s he saying about your golf swing but he’s saying it’s getting better he’s just checking in on me today as well um it’s been great I’ve been out

To see him once which was nice he came down to Florida so I saw him there as well um bu’s he’s more than a coach to me so it’s been uh it’s been nice to have him in my corner through this process but he’s he says I’m right where

I need to be so uh hopefully I can go out and do that this week beautiful uh final thing it’s two part question what do you hope to prove to yourself and to other others this week and the rest of your career yeah I the big deal is you can

Overcome um that a big obstacle a big deal like this isn’t an end of your career and it’s not a roadblock this is going to be a jump start for me I want to prove to my kids that you can overcome you can deal with stuff that’s

Thrown at you that you not expecting um you stay positive you surround yourself with right people and you work hard and that’s what that’s what I’ve been doing I’ve been working extremely hard I’ve had the right people around me um um the right support staff and uh I believe

This is the start of something great biggest test this week for you will be what the the focus um physically I can hit every shot I know that the game’s been good I’ve been working and training hard but uh being able to stay in it for

For seven days um will be a challenge but it’s one I’m looking forward to well as you can tell in that video Gary is very healthy physically he feels like he’s ready to go but yes he wants to see if he can remain focused through

Four rounds of go off here at the Sony Open in this obviously highly competitive Arena now he made the determination just last week to play here at the Sony Open he spent 10 days on the big island working out playing a lot of golf and he ultimately decided

After talking with his team and his wife Gabby that yeah I feel like I’m ready to give it a go to test out what I got here at the Sony Open this week and regardless of what he shoots I can tell you he’s going to lead the field this

Week in Strokes gain hugs I mean everyone is embracing him players caddies rules officials media members it is such a blessing to have Gary Woodland back out here on the PJ tour Todd on that note you’ve have some heavy heavy stories at the beginning of 2024 Chris

Kirk talking about the surp sobriety he has and the importance of his family and also the people on the PJ tour who have supported him and Gary Willen as well talking about the doctors yes and his family but also the the Embrace that he feels by by the the PJ to appears that

He will play against tomorrow how would you describe the closeness of the fraternity out there week to week you’re out there as much as anyone well first off yes they’re out here competing they’re out here as entertainers they want to win each and every week they Tee It Up but this is a

Traveling circus uh we all travel together out here on the PGA tour and we get to know each other we respect everyone out here regardless of what your job is and when someone is in crisis you mentioned Chris Kirk Gary Woodland obviously we rally around him

And this is a family out here um so they have been supporting both Chris and Gary Gary most recently with all kinds of love and and and just notes and texts of inspiration to him giving him hope and optimism as you could tell there in that piece he was very very fearful that

Lesion was on the part of the brain that controls the emotion of fear um so he he needed to be lifted up and the PGA Tour surely did that a wonderful interview Todd we appreciate it thank you thank you so much you got it just struck by that and

Reading the Golf Digest piece on Gary wooden as well and then hearing Todd with that interview with with Gary he’s such a big strong guy you know a national champion a former basketball player and to read the description of the the fear that he had and and clutching the the mattress and scared

That he was going to lose his life and lose his kids and him describing to Todd about a a flame in the kitchen and worri that the the house is going to burn down it’s just it’s hard to imagine Gary Woodland in that vulnerable place it’s a

Horrific way to get perspective on life and and what really matters I suppose and it’s great to see Gary Woodland looking so healthy now because as Todd said you you really won’t find an enemy in Gary Woodland’s world out there he just is one of the more amiable guys on

This tour and treats everyone with respect which I think is what is not coming back to him over the last year when he’s gone through this but it’s he he is a competitor at heart yeah and you can tell Gary Woodland by the work that he’s been putting in and the reference

To but Harman he wants to play well he’s not coming out here just to to get hugs and say hey guys I’m back he’s out here to try to reestablish a career that has given him four wins on the PGA tour and most recently was at the US Open at

Pebble Beach four years ago almost so there’s definitely that fire in him but you know it it’s definitely been tempered it has to have been tempered by an experience like this because his comments during even during his press conference yesterday would really brought a tear from a stone

Just on how low he was actually brought by this illness and and the fear of what it could turn into that’s the thing you know we get these these sheets and these printouts and you read that you know Gary Wen is about to undergo surgery as

We found out in the fall but but I didn’t know the depth of his despair you know we’re reading the stories and learning about you know a very popular player on the PGA I had no idea that he had was going through what he had gone through until today and when I think

About Gary Wood I I smile because I’ve been able to interview him a few times one year he was at Nota Bay’s charity event and he was on the driving range with Nicholas Karts at that time those were two of the longest hitters in the game of golf and they decided to have

Some fun to do a little bit of a drive contest to see who could out hit the other and Gary absolutely was walm marting it past Nicholas and Nicholas was swinging out of his shoes trying to keep up with Gary you could just see the the kind of jock tough mentality that

Gary had and you’re right and I know that this being behind him now and hopefully that it is and he said hopefully never comes back you know that he just wants to be out there you know you know bumping elbows with the best players in the world because that’s what

He’s always loved to do you know going toe-to-toe going head-to-head with the best in the game and we’ve seen some tremendously emotional wins in this game in the last few months it’s probably too much to hope for for for that this weekend let’s just hope that he gets

Some positive signs on this game but just being back well that’s a victory in and of itself right now