Major champion tees off at Masters after surviving traumatic brain surgery

On the last weekend of March, Gary Woodland experienced something that he once believed might never happen again.

It wasn’t just that Woodland won the Houston Open — his first PGA Tour win since the 2019 U.S. Open. It was that he was able to revel in golf at all.

Woodland underwent brain surgery in September 2023 to remove a lesion that had been causing seizures, and on March 9, he opened up to Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard and revealed his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis for the first time publicly.

Before teeing off for the first round of the 2026 Masters on Thursday, Woodland sat down with ESPN’s Jeff Darlington to convey just how dark and tenuous things got for him.

Darlington asked Woodland about the risks involved with deciding to undergo brain surgery.

“Once surgery became real, five days out, I’m like, ‘If this goes wrong, I’m dead,'” Woodland said. “What if I never play golf again? What if I can’t hold my kids again?”

Woodland wrote letters for his wife and kids to read in the future in case he died during surgery, but he survived and was able to play in the 2024 Masters at Augusta National. It looked like the comeback story ended there, but Woodland’s PTSD silently tormented him.

Earlier this week, Woodland met with the media and explained his mindset entering his first Masters since 2024.

“My mind has changed a lot over the last couple of years,” Woodland said. “I just don’t have the luxury of looking ahead. When I’m not on the course, I’m in a battle, and when I’m on the course, I’m in a battle.”

Woodland added, “The one thing I know is, having this brain tumor and having PTSD, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. It doesn’t care. I’m emotional from the standpoint [of] I know how close I probably was to never being back here, and I’m very proud of myself for earning my way back.”

Woodland is playing the first round alongside two-time Masters champion and odds-on 2026 Masters favorite Scottie Scheffler and Robert MacIntyre. See all of the official tee times and pairings here.

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