ATLANTA — Gary Woodland is more than willing to put one wayward tee shot in his rearview mirror.
Woodland will do his best to leave the past in the past on Thursday when he tees off in the opening round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
Competing during Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship, Woodward topped his tee shot at the 436-yard, par-4 ninth hole at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis. He carded a double-bogey on the hole and finished tied for fourth at 12-under-par 268.
“I’ve hit some good shots this year, and I haven’t got any attention — or as much attention as that shot has,” he said on Wednesday. “That one, it caught me off guard too, more than anything. I hadn’t really missed a shot for eight holes, and then that came out of nowhere.
“Obviously (Brent Snedeker) was throwing me under the bus last night at the Payne Stewart Award. I got a lot of texts. My dad and I will play in the PNC again this year, the father and son, and when I turned my phone on after the round, it wasn’t ‘Congrats’ or ‘Good playing,’ it was, ‘Hey, get that shot out of the way. I can’t afford to have that in the scramble.'”
Jokes aside, Woodland said he was thrilled with how he regained his composure after that shot.
“I’m proud of myself for how I rebounded after that,” he said. “It shocked me so much. I think I could have let everything get away. I rebounded and hung in there pretty well and let that one shot go. Because at the end of the day, it was just one shot.”
Woodland, obviously, has encountered and dealt with far greater obstacles. He underwent brain surgery in 2023 to remove a tumor and has since spoken openly about battling post-traumatic stress disorder.
“People, I don’t think, can relate to brain surgery,” Woodland said. “People can relate to what I’m battling now. The amount of messages I got of people just saying thank you because they’re battling stuff that nobody knows about — if I can come out and ask for help and talk about it, then they’ve gotten help, too.”
“At the end of the day, I want to make this world a better place,” he added. “If my story or my journey or me talking about the struggles I face every day — if that helps somebody else, man, that’s what it’s all about. I don’t want to be remembered as being a great golfer; I want to be remembered as a great person.
“My struggles suck. There’s no other way to put it. I have a lot of days that suck. But if that helps somebody else, then that’s going to help me, too.”
On the course, Woodland is proud of his game.
Listed as No. 42 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Woodland won the Texas Children’s Hospital Open in April for his first win since 2019, and he has six top-10 finishes this year.
“I think from top to bottom my game’s better than it’s ever been. Statistically it shows that,” he said. “… I’m as consistent now through driving all the way down through the bag through putting than I’ve ever been. That’s not only exciting for me now, it’s exciting for me going forward.
“My speed’s back. I’m hitting it hard. Statistically I’m putting it as good as I’ve ever putted it in my career. I have a lot of things to be excited about, but I’m excited about the consistency of my game top to bottom that I’m putting in.”
Woodland, 42, has five career PGA Tour wins, including the 2019 U.S. Open. He was a member of the U.S. team that won the Presidents Cup in 2019 in Australia.
In 2025, he also served as a vice captain for the United States at the Ryder Cup.
