Gary Woodland reveals PTSD battle after brain surgery to remove tumor

PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Gary Woodland revealed he has been battling post-traumatic stress disorder since undergoing brain surgery in 2023 and said he "can't waste energy" any longer attempting to hide his condition.

"Every week, I come out and everyone is so excited and happy that I'm back," Woodland, the Delray Beach resident, said in an interview with Golf Channel. "I hear that every week, 'It's so nice to see you passed this. It's so nice to see you 100%.'

"And I appreciate that love and support, but inside, I feel like I'm dying. I feel like I'm living a lie. And I don't want to waste energy on that anymore. I want to focus my energy on me and my recovery, my dreams out here, my family. I don't want to waste energy hiding this."

A year ago, while receiving the PGA Tour's Courage Award at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, Woodland described then what he was experiencing was PTSD while talking about symptoms from the September 2023 surgery to remove a tumor pressing against his brain. He returned to competitive golf four months later.

"My brain couldn't keep up," Woodland said.

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He later said doctors were not able to remove the entire tumor.

"At the end of the day, I've still got a tumor in my head, on my brain," Woodland said in December before playing with his father, Dan, at the PNC Championship.

Gary Woodland's tumor pushes on part of brain controlling fear, anxiety

Woodland's tumor was pushing on the part of his brain that controls fear and anxiety and had him "jumping out of bed with fear, mostly around death."

Woodland recalled being startled at the Procore Championship in September when someone was walking too close to him.

"I stepped aside, I pulled my caddie and said, 'This stuff is hitting me, man. You can't let anybody get behind me,' " he said on Golf Channel. "Next thing you know, I couldn't remember what I was doing. My eyesight started to get blurry. And a hole later, I just said, "Butch, I can't handle it.' And I start bawling in the middle of the fairway. It was my turn to hit, and I couldn't hit."

Woodland was given sunglasses and ducked into bathrooms to cry. He continued to play.

"There are days where it's tough," he said, getting emotional. "Crying in a scorer trailer. Running to my car to hide it because I'm scared … I don't want to live that way anymore. If I'm feeling something, I want to let it out, let it go."

The 2019 U.S. Open Champion and four-time winner on the PGA Tour has an 8:16 a.m. tee time for the March 12 opening round of The Players Championship. He has played in five events this season, his last at Cognizant where he missed the cut.

And although doctors have told him in a "ideal world" he is not playing golf and not in a "stressful, overstimulating environment," Woodland said golf is his dream.

"This is what I'm going to do," he said, "and no matter how hard it is, I'm going to play."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Gary Woodland opens up on PTSD after 2023 brain surgery