Gary Woodland Tuesday Press Conference 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii

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All right we’d like to welcome Gary Woodland into the media center here at the Sony Open in Hawaii he is making his ninth start at this event Gary first of all welcome back to the PGA Tour September 18th was a huge day for you

And we are glad to have you back if we can get some thoughts on being back on tour and just the process that you’ve gone through to get here it’s been a long process one that uh maybe even a couple weeks ago I didn’t know if this

Week was possible um it’s uh it’s it’s been a journey for me too but this was a goal of mine um from surgery was to be back I I had some people tell me that this was a little optimistic to be here this week but um last week my family and

I came over to Hawaii early we over on the big island staying with some friends um in Kona really ramped up practice ramped up the training um and the body responded beautifully last week kept getting better and better I’ve had a lot of phone conversations with Butch to

Make sure the game was in a good spot and um come here feeling pretty good about the game itself we’ll see how uh how my mental brain holds up um for seven days of focus and stress but um I’m definitely excited to be here and before questions uh you’re making as as

I mentioned your ninth start here three top 10 finishes on a golf course that you like just talk a little bit about being back yeah it’s always a great place to start in Hawaii um the golf course I think’s a very good golf course one driving’s a premium ball striking is

A premium um which usually sets up pretty good for me I don’t think favors any tip type of player you just got to play well long short um it really favors who’s playing the best golf so I’m excited about that all right get started with questions let’s go Adam

Here Eric we just started at the beginning like did you find out that you had a situation was going to require surgery yeah I I started feeling some symptoms um in April a couple weeks after Augusta um I mean there’s a lot a lot uh I mean the big one was I just

Wasn’t feeling like myself but it was uh a lot of jolting um especially in the middle of the night shaking um hands were really trimmer a lot of fear um and that was the one that scared me the most was I’m a very optimistic person believe good

Things will happen and I was very fear-driven every day U mostly around death and uh as it got worse um you know loss of appetite chills no energy um it’s it started getting pretty bad to where I was meeting I have a performance coach I’m working with her um it started

Getting so bad I called my doctor rsai who I’ve been with for 13 years and I was like man I need something to calm me down like almost anxiety um and he’s like jetb I can’t give you anything without an MRI and I’m like and I’m

Shaking so bad he wanted to roll out Parkinson’s um and I got an MRI that night and it came back with a lesion looks like a tumor on my brain um started going through more testing more MRIs they got me to a specialist in Kansas City who explained everything to

A t that the jolting and everything I was experiencing at night was actually partial seizures um the fear the this lesion in my brain sat on the part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety so he’s like you’re not going crazy um everything you’re experiencing is absolutely common normal for where this

Thing’s sitting in your brain um they got me on anti-seizure medicine immediately the seizure still continued so they increased the dose and once they increased the dose that started to go down I started losing memory I started doing a lot of things started happening that symptoms start getting worse but

The only ones they were worried about was the fear and anxiety and as the medicine started to increase my brain started to slow down and every those seizures started to stop which was nice nice for me cuz I was able to function during the day but the meds I was on

Were working for the seizures but they were horrible for me as a person I I had horrible side effects and that’s the fear went away for a couple weeks and once it came back and I’m was calling the doctors they were tracking the brain with monthly MRIs um to make sure everything was

Stable and it wasn’t growing but when the fear started to come back the doctor’s like we have to go in um it was pushed on the brain the part that it’s pushing on they believe that it was growing and uh I played through Greensboro and the game the reason why I

Kept playing is my game from a physical stand Point felt really good and I was in positions that I’ve been trying to get into a long time and it was a break from what I was dealing with off the golf course um it was hard cuz we didn’t

Tell anybody but it was just we didn’t understand either we didn’t know exactly what was going on and my caddy pulled me aside after Greensboro we were staying together in the house my wife was flying out most weekends just because I didn’t want to be alone I was nervous sleeping

Was the worst part cuz I was just jolting jumping out of bed with fear um and mostly like I said around death and so my cad he pulled me aside he’s like job you can’t play this way you got to go get help man you got to get fixed um

I mean I’d be standing over a club and forget which club I was hitting I’d be lining up putts and I’m like it’s taking too long I’m just going to hit it I just didn’t have the focus the energy and I went the next week to see a

Specialist that I was referred to in Miami which was nice CU it was close to home and he’s like we got to go in we got to get this out the only we can keep ramping up medicine but the medicine’s not slowing down the fear um biopsy it’s

Too risky from where it was in my brain he didn’t want to go in any more than he had to um so surgery and removal was the next step they couldn’t get it all out from where it is located it was benign which is the big deal if it was

Cancerous they would have removed it all but it’s up against my optic track um so they were moved as much as they could and they believed they cut off the blood circulation to what’s left so they’re tracking it right now with every 3 months with MRIs still I had an MRI

Right before I came to Hawaii a week and a half ago and everything was stable from surgery so that’s a huge relief for me um so showing up in Hawaii practicing the last 10 days I had a little bit of relief off my back that it’s stable in

There right now and we’ll just pray and hope that it continues to not grow you started feeling better immediately the the fear went down immediately um and that was filled with thankfulness I mean I’ve been the support from the tour from people outside the golf world has just been

Tremendous for me and my family and I when I woke up and was realized I was okay um I was filled with thankfulness and love and that replaced the fear it was emotional very emotional because I’d gone four and a half months of every day really thinking I was going to

Die um and I was the doctors kept telling me I was okay but this thing pushing on my brain on fear and anxiety every I mean it didn’t matter if I was driving a car on an airplane I think the Bend’s going to follow me I just

Everything I thought was going to kill me and so you can imagine leading up to surgery what I how I felt going into having my my head cut open and and operated on the fear going into that was was awful so I mean I felt it was hard

On me it was probably harder on my family um for what they had to you know they had to deal with me throughout this whole thing um and try to keep me positive and keep me looking forward and that was that was hard to do in the moment so after surgery I definitely

Felt relief one that I could see one that I had the left side of my body CU that was those were the two big risks going in losing eyesight and losing the left side of my body having those when I woke up um being able to go home I spent

2 Days in the ICU um and then walked out out of the hospital um there was a chance you could have been paralyzed on the left side it was the risk the blood vessels around where they were going in were connected to the left side of my body um the optic

Track that thing set on that’s why they told me before surgery they didn’t believe they could get it all out because it was just too risky for losing eyesight um so I knew going in they probably weren’t going to be able to get it all out um and they said they would

Get as much as they could until they weren’t aund it was surgeon’s judgment when he got in there of what he was cutting out and what he he knew 100% wasn’t going to affect my livelihood and uh he got as much most as much as he

Could to a point where he wasn’t 100% sure what he was cutting and so he left what he did in there but like I said he he believes he cut off the blood circulation that it hopefully dies and won’t be able to grow what’s left first MRI my first MRI was

May symptoms started at Vidant um my first MRI was May 24th emotionally oh jeez sorry emotionally you’ve always been a kind of a portrait of of control yeah what was that like to trying all of a sudden you’re all over the place that considering that was the hardest part

For me is I wasn’t myself um that’s probably the hardest part for my family as well it uh to live mean I’m 39 years old to live a life one way and then all of a sudden you’re not yourself you have no control um you know I work hard with performance

Coaches and psychologists since I was 16 years old you think you can overcome stuff and no I mean I couldn’t overcome this I mean every day it was it was a new way of dying it was a new way of death the jolting in the middle of the

Night scared the heck out of me um it’s a jolting I’m sure it was a partial seizure is what they explained to me I was literally I’d be completely asleep and jump out of bed and then fear would set in I mean fear fear I have a fear of heights and

Fear that I’m falling from Heights where I mean it was Wednesday night or Thursday night on Memorial I’m laying in bed at 1:00 grabbing the bed to tell myself I wasn’t falling from Heights that I wasn’t dying and I mean for an hour and to have to get up and play the next

Day and play through it the golf was the only thing that was allowed me a little break for a little bit of time um I didn’t have the energy to do it 7 days a week but it did give me a little bit of Break

Um when I decided to shut it down I mean I my energy I was practicing 5 6 hours a day I’d play obviously on tour when I shut it down decided I was going to have surgery I had 21 days before surgery when I found out I mean I I’d had an

Hour of energy a day I was telling my wife I don’t know how I just played I mean I played 10 weeks with these symptoms eight weeks on the meds the meds when I started the meds I mean I’d take the meds twice a day at 7:00 a.m.

7:00 p.m. I mean if I didn’t take an energy pill or something I’d be asleep by 9:00 a.m. it just completely DEET it slowed my brain down and just depleted my energy energ and I just had nothing so I’m eating energy stuff all day to stay awake and

Play um but it stopped the seizures you know and so that was that was a good thing obviously but the fear and the moodiness the energy irritable the focus everything the meds just completely depleted me and I I’m still on the meds um they’ve switched me Brands and since

They’ve switched me Brands the last five I guess almost seven weeks now I’ve been on the new brand I’m starting to feel like myself again the Energy’s back um the side effects I was dealing from the First Med have gone away um so that’s been that’s been a huge huge relief for

Me and my family and my caddy they don’t have to deal with me being moody all the time now um but they were trying to switch me meds throughout this whole process but two weeks before the British they want to switch me meds because the side effects were getting so bad and I

Told the doctor I said doc I got a major championship in two weeks I know what these side effects are I don’t want to switch and get new side effects effects before I go to the British so some of that hope I probably could have got better with different side effects if I

Switched earlier but I I didn’t want to mess up my chance to play well up for golf so it was a big balance um and it was a process hopefully I never have to go through again how do you think this experience has changed you a lot um one I realize

There’s a lot of good in this world because the love and support I’ve had has been unbelievable um even being back this week seeing the guys you know I haven’t seen many guys um it’s been overwhelming out how good it’s been I’ve learned a lot about myself from the

Standpoint I usually people ask me for help and I’m not asking I’m very fortunate and probably lucky why I’m sitting here being able to play this week that I asked for help because when I was struggling if I would if my doctor would have gave me anxiety or some medicine to

To calm me down and not ordered that MRI who knows how long this would have gone who knows how more it would have grown um asking for help helped my process speed up helped us catch this quicker than we probably would have caught it um

And that that helped me to saved me for more than anything um so it’s uh I can’t do it all on my own I I need to the right people around me and I’m fortunate enough that I had people around me that were willing to help and

The right people to get me in the right places um it’s definitely definitely helped me would you share sh one example of the love and support you receed yeah obviously the tour has been amazing from from Jay all the way down people reaching out um sending stuff to the house people

Taking care of my family and kids the messages my wife has received um you just it it was hard because in the start we didn’t tell any anybody like I said so my team knew and my family knew that was it and when we announced that I was

Going to have surgery we announced it so much later it was 4 months after we’d found out it’s and people started going through the same emotions that we were going through when we found out so it was it was hard but the love and support that people reaching out I mean left and

Right I mean you’re talking people outside the golf world people and outside Arenas people that I hadn’t spoken to a lot didn’t know very well um and not only just saying we’re thinking about you we’re praying for you literally continuing to check in continuing to ask if I need anything

What do you what does your family need um my team’s been tremendous but it’s been uh it’s been nice to know that we’re not alone in this journey and it’s I mean I could go through names left and right but it’s been uh it’s nice to know we’re not

Alone just curious uh throw one name out do you either to or receive uh some messages from JB hes I did not talk to JB I know JB’s dealt with some some brain stuff um but I did not talk to to JB um yeah why didn’t you

Um why why didn’t you want to keep it to yourself this may an obvious answer the the the big the big answer was we just didn’t understand what we were dealing with um they were tracking it so you know there there was nothing they could

Do until they the next MRI was coming so it was hard to to tell people we because we didn’t know um you know the MRIs even the MRI had a couple weeks ago the readings and the reports from the MRI are a lot worse than what happened

When they got in and pathology when all that came back from when they got in there it’s the MRI is saying it looks bad and obviously they’re cutting my head open and going in and removing stuff in my brain but but pathology was inconclusive which they say I was

Nervous when I got that reading but they’re saying it’s great cuz it’s not stage four you know I mean it’s reading as a lowgrade Goma tumor but pathology is saying it’s grading so low we don’t know what exactly it is so um like I said it’s

Hard to explain CU we just didn’t know and um we’ll continue to track it but continue to believe that they they did what they needed to in surgery and it was not going to continue to grow you say you’re two days after the surgery I

Was in ICU for two nights um yeah they brought a wheelchair to the IC room ICU room to and I said I’m sorry I walked in this place I’m walking out and I got out of out of bed and I walked straight to the car um and got home and it was

Amazing seeing my kids my kids didn’t come while I was in the hospital we didn’t want to bring them to see me like that and uh I mean I had 30 Staples in my head and was was out of it for a while but um it was amazing to get home

And see them Kevin um you mentioned it was at vant when you first you were you on the course I was sleeping Saturday night and what was like jolting and woke up jolting and then fear set in and uh I didn’t know what it was I didn’t know

You know maybe a panic attack I don’t I didn’t know and I played Charlotte the next week and it continued to get worse uh my caddy told me Friday I sh’s like J this is the best I’ve ever seen your mental side you’re son I’m like I don’t

Know if I can play this weekend I I really don’t um I’m like I just fear that I’m never going to play golf again that I’m going to die my wife flew in and I think I finished 14th that week somehow I don’t know how I did it but it

Continued to get worse from there and that’s the PGA was next um I went my performance coach was in New York I went and saw her for 3 days after missing the cut at the PGA I he was nauseous the whole PGA and that’s when I called my

Doctor asking for something and he ordered the MRI um it was a week after the PGA and it was something where like on the course it was an escape like did you think about did you think about it when you were playing or was it pretty

Much like just separated it the the golf was a break because I was so focused in trying to hit a golf shot um probably why I didn’t have the energy to finish around but it was a small break um most of this it all started in the middle of

The night and it wasn’t every night but when it did come it was throughout the day and it was a horrible experience I had it three nights the week of the PGA um two nights the week of memorial memorial is the week I started the

Medicine um so it was just it was a process and that was the biggest fear not knowing I didn’t know if it was coming tonight um so yeah it’s when I didn’t want to be alone I started rent houses with my caddy if my wife didn’t come out and renting houses with people

Just to make sure I wasn’t alone couple things um are you hearing from people that you never met who were inspired by you um and vice versa who are inspiring you and the other thing that be are you sleeping through the night okay now yeah I I had a little

Tough spell sleeping leading up to that MRI a couple weeks ago just cuz I was a little nervous probably leading up and um but everything came back well that’s been nice I’ve been sleeping very well um I people say I’ve had some messages saying I’ve inspired people at the end

Of the day I I just want to prove you can do hard things um I want to prove to my kids that no nobody’s going to tell you you can’t do anything um you can overcome even some of the toughest scariest decisions and things in your life not everything’s easy um this came

Out of nowhere for me but I’m not going to let it stop me I don’t want this to be a bump in the road for me I want it to be a jump start in my career um I’ve had people reach out that have gone through similar experiences and hearing

Their recovery and the stuff dealing with similar things is has definitely helped I’ve talked to athletes that have gone through concussions and protocols because that’s some of the similar stuff that I’ll be dealing with going forward um so yeah it’s been a lot of communication with a lot of people but

At the end of the day I’m here because I believe this is what I’ve been born to do is to play Great Golf and I want to do that again it’s been a while it’s been a couple years and uh nothing’s going to stop me I believe that and I I

Believe a lot of great things are ahead thank you yep Doug did you see did you see coer last week I did did did you beat him uh we didn’t play together but I saw him I played I played with cooch two months ago May or month and a

Half ago maybe um I saw him a couple times he came in before surgery came in after surgery to check on me at the house um so I’ve seen him a couple times um the game we played when the first or the only time we played it was

A team game so I don’t know I I’ll say I did but yeah yeah for sure I’m curious what when you got back from the hospital what was that first month like it was hard I mean I was on the couch for a month so you know my my kids definitely aren’t used

To seeing me on the couch I’m usually gone my son’s it was hard my son was very scared of me when I didn’t have something on my head to cover the scar um the Staples you know he he’s six he doesn’t understand thought I was dying

Um so that was hard for him so I kept a bandage on my head for most of those first two weeks and then once the Staples came out you know he was so excited that I was healing everything was good then so I was on the couch for

Four weeks I had I didn’t have much energy from surgery so there wasn’t much I could do um and it was an eye opener to see the stuff my wife actually deals with cuz I’m usually gone at the golf course and traveling now I was home and

Seeing her raise three kids and be a nurse as well taking care of me so I have a even bigger respect for what my wife deals with with but um it was it was nice the first two weeks like I said I was filled with love and

Thankfulness um and then it was what’s the next step how do I start getting back how do I how do I get healthy how am I I was my wife was very fortunate or nice to me and allowed me to turn our dining room um into a putting green so I

Had I had full swing simulators come in and we changed we put a the putt view um into our dining room and so I I was putting 2 days after surgery so the 30 minutes or an hour of energy I had a day I I’ve been putting the whole time um so

That was nice um and then I started swinging I got cleared to swing four weeks after surgery I didn’t have the energy to do it so I waited five weeks after surgery before I started swinging um but I also couldn’t drive so that was that was the hard part my fortunately my

Dad was in town so my dad would drive me to the golf course and picked me up when I started um and I started swinging about five weeks after surgery and that’s right after that’s when I played nine holes for the first time I don’t remember exactly when it was I could go

Back and look CU I played so poorly I called Butch I called my doctor first I’m like can I travel can I he’s like yeah you’re cleared you can fly and I’m like I called Butch I’m like are you home he’s like I’m home I’m like I’m

Coming I’m flying so I was nervous to fly the first time one walking through metal detectors but I guess it’s all titanium in there so I’m I’m walked through the metal detectors I cleared that um flew to Vegas and saw Butch and 20 minutes minutes in it was very Rusty

And then 30 minutes in he’s like jeub you’re right where you’re supposed to be so uh it’s been a good process the titanium it’s here so it was a craniotomy so they they cut me open all the way down to my ear opened it up um

Cut about a baseball size hole in my skull and then went in through that um and then put it back with plates and screws um so I’m got a robotic head I guess the last thing just out of curiosity knowing you what did you ever fear before this these

Symptoms not much um fear of not being great I guess would probably be it fear fear of failure would be the only thing I had um but I mean it was that’s like I said it came out of nowhere I W this was a new experience

For me um taking out being an optimistic person taking that away and everything’s death and it was new I mean everything from driving the car to like I said getting on an airplane which we’re traveling for a living coming home seeing my kids do something oh my kids

Something bad’s going to happen to them I mean it was it was a horrible experience all you wanted to do was go to sleep just to not think about it and going to sleep was the worst part cuz that’s where all these seizures were happening so it was uh it was a horrible

Four months five months what’s the most impactful thing major Dan said he’s been amazing through this whole process um when we announced it he’s reached out weekly he’s obviously people that know him he’s one of the most motivational people around um and he’s still he not only talks to me he talks

To my parents so he knows when my MRIs are he knows all that and he’s checking in on a regular basis but one is just keep your faith to stay positive to continue to believe um and that’s like I said he’s been there for me my whole life since I met him in

2006 he’s been there for me but through this process he’s been unbelievable let’s take a couple more how’s what would you describe the size of what they took out of your I don’t I don’t know it was it wasn’t it wasn’t massive um my wife saw the video of it

Fortunately didn’t see that I don’t know exactly it wasn’t massive by any means and that’s I asked him when we found it how long do you think it’s been in there and they’re like without a previous MRI we have no idea so they don’t know but the fact that symptoms were getting so

Worse and so rapid they believe it was growing um and so they however much was in there they I believe they got half of it I don’t know that um but what is under there I know is up against the optic track and there’s a blood vessel close that was to the left

Side of my body that they didn’t want to mess with and the big deal is from the last MRI week and a half two weeks ago it’s everything stable from the MRI I had immediately after surgery how long will you be on medicine the for a while it’s standard

Protocol for six months um the big deal is I was talking to a neurologist recently and he said the fact that I haven’t had a seizure since surgery there’s only two explanations one surgery the part that they removed was the part that was causing the seizure or the medicine’s working which we know

It’s not the meds because I was on the meds having seizures before so they believe they surgery was successful from that standpoint but the only way to know that is to come off the medicine um which 6 months would be March 18th I don’t know if I want to come off um a

Couple weeks before Augusta so I might wait till I have a bigger break in the year to taper off the meds but I’m looking forward to getting off the meds what are your goals for this season this week will be a big week um obviously I can hit every golf shot I

Want right now physically um it’s can my brain sustain the seven days of of tournament golf you know it’s different playing with my buddies back home at Pine Tree to come out here and playing against the guys on tours obviously at whole another animal but can I get back to the focus

And energy and stuff I was I’m used to accustomed since I’ve been on tour can that come back so and if it’s not this week can I adjust can I go home and practice and adjust and work on that focused stuff but obviously I’m in the major championships I’m not in the signature

Designated events so I’ll need some help getting in those but I plan on playing full schedule I plan on being competitive very quickly um like I said physically I can hit any shot I want and that’s not that’s not going to be the problem so I’m looking forward to being

Back and looking forward to where where I’m at and uh expecting to to be ready very soon all right let’s take the last one day if I can Circle back to something you said at the very beginning um it was something about how there was some advice that maybe this was too soon

Um and I don’t know if there is precedence but what would it normally be if that’s the right yeah I don’t know that um and everybody’s different the surgeon told me before surgery you know I was like how quickly can I be back and they told me I’d be hitting balls within

Four to six weeks which I was five weeks after after surgery but they’re like you just won’t want to play golf it it’s you won’t want to compete for a while just because the focus um you know I can go out and do it for a day or two can I do

It seven days this week we’ll find out this week but so far it’s been good I slept great last night um I played nine holes this morning I’m going to go play nine holes again this afternoon but it’s the focus deal it’s the over stimulation

You know like I’ll be at the house if my kids all three kids are on an iPad or phone and it’s just too much I’ll have to leave the room for a while so it’s what can I handle um next week will be I’m still under four month next week

Will be four months from surgery that’s probably the date where they said after four months I should be pretty good so um we’ll see it’s like you don’t really know until you do it yeah exactly well Gary your situation shows us golf isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things we’re

Thankful to have you here healthy and best of luck going forward thanks appreciate it thank you guys