In a room filled with quality writers, people who make their living by producing stories, the most eloquent wordsmith and most compelling storyteller of the evening was a golfer.
Gary Woodland simply dazzled. Hit it out of the park, as they say. Gary proved that there is crying in golf, which is because when you strip away the birdies and bogeys and all that Strokes Gained silliness, our sport is about people and the raw emotions that this game brings out in us.
“It doesn’t do me any justice to hold stuff in,” said Woodland. “I went five months last year with holding things in and it didn’t do me any good, so . . . ”
And so, at the annual Golf Writers of America banquet April 7 during the Masters week, Woodland told his story, letting the words flow so beautifully and so brilliantly that you could sense that most of the crowd had thrown up the white flag. They had surrendered to the tears.
For good reason, too. At 39, Woodland appears as strong and as fit as ever, a man with impeccable athletic skills. Kansas born and bred, he loved hoops, of course, and played a bit in college. Baseball actually may have been his best sport. But golf is why he transferred to the University of Kansas and it led to a PGA Tour career.
“I had a dream,” Woodland told the audience. “I wanted to be a professional athlete and I wanted to be great. Through golf I was living that dream till a year ago.”
The 2023 season was not Woodland’s finest and he was the shell of a player who just four years earlier had emphatically won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Never did he reveal what was going on in ’23, but later Woodland talked of spasms and tremors in his hands and a constant fear that he lived with.
An MRI ruled out Parkinson’s disease. That was the good news. The bad? The MRI revealed a lesion in his brain that sat in the area where your fears and anxieties are controlled.
“I was scared to lose a lot. Scared to lose my family. Scared to lose my quality of life. Scared to lose my job. But it’s not just a job to me; it’s the only dream I’ve ever had.”
The surgery, call a craniotomy, was performed last September and as much of the lesion as possible was removed. In January, Woodland was given the green light to resume his PGA Tour career and the Masters was his 10th tournament of the season.
He was at the GWAA banquet to receive the Ben Hogan Award, given annually to a player who remains active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness.
“This is not an award you dream about winning. But to me this award is about a dream. That’s why receiving this award tonight means so much to me, because it means my dream is still alive. It means my dream still lives on.”
To hear Woodland’s words was incredible enough. But what accentuated his appearance even more was the uncanny delivery. Heartfelt and composed, he was the picture of graciousness. Eyes ahead, posture upright, Woodland never once looked down at the phone which he brought with him in case he lost his focus.
That he didn’t is a positive sign to the warmest degree because when he struggled in 2023, Woodland conceded that he easily lost focus on the golf course.
And the speech? It was impressive, one poignant sentence after another. The words were so wonderful. The message enveloped in clarity. So good was it that the urge to chase down Woodland at the following week’s tournament in Hilton Head, S.C., was overwhelming.
Could Gary Woodland offer more insight to his speech, because it was so impactful?
“I told Gabs (his wife, Gabby, whose awesomeness is off the charts), I don’t like to write things down (but) I’ll go over thoughts in my head. I like to speak from the heart,” he said. “Especially when something means a lot; it’s easier for me to speak.”
He wrote the speech – “the whole thing,” he smiled – and on the half-hour ride to the banquet, Woodland didn’t listen to music in the car, which he always does.
“I was going through (the speech) in my head because I wanted Gabby to know, ‘that maybe I haven’t told you enough, but this is how I feel.’ ”
The speech at the banquet went flawlessly. Woodland kept his eyes locked on the camera and the crowd.
“I think if I had looked down I definitely would have seen Gabby. I would have struggled to get through it. Looking at the camera up high helped me stay in the moment and get through it.”
When it arrived, Woodland nailed the highlight of his speech. “When the fear of death and everything became too much,” he said, “she was the one who gave me hope. She was the one who reminded me of my dream.”
There were plenty of tears and the ovation was warm and lengthy and Woodland’s exit was done with exquisite taste. His time on stage was done, but his story and the incredible support that he has received from Gabby, from medical personnel, and from many in golf should remain in our thoughts and prayers.
Well done, he was told in Hilton Head, and Woodland offered a smile that is so gentle, so encouraging.
“I’ve learned over the years, especially through this journey I’ve been through, to talk about how I’m feeling,” he said. “And that award meant a lot to me.”
That was obvious. And just as obvious was this: Gary and Gabby and their beautiful family – son Jaxson, daughters Maddox and Lennox – are loved by many.
