Gary Woodland hopes to help others amid struggles with PTSDMark SchlabachAug 26, 2026, 10:53 AM ETClose
- Senior college football writer
- Author of seven books on college football
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
ATLANTA — When Gary Woodland revealed in September 2023 that he’d undergone surgery to remove a benign lesion from his brain, he estimates he probably received 100 text messages wishing him well.
After revealing in March that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder related to the procedure, the PGA Tour golfer stated he received thousands of emails and text messages offering encouragement.
“People, I don’t think, can relate to brain surgery,” Woodland stated Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club, the site of this week’s Tour Championship. “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.”
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Woodland stated he hopes he can continue to inspire others who are struggling.
“At the end of the day, I want to make this world a better place,” he stated. “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.”
Woodland, 42, is still battling severe hypertension and stress from his PTSD. During the third round of last week’s BMW Championship in St. Louis, Woodland asked PGA Tour security officials to remove drones that were following him on the course and causing him anxiety.
“The hardest thing for me I’ve ever had to do was ask for help, and it’s amazing when you ask for help how many people actually want to help,” Woodland stated. “I don’t have to fight this on my own. I can ask for help, and when you do, people help you. So, I’m learning to ask for help to help me get through a lot of things that I’m still struggling with. But I’m a lot better off now than I was six months ago, I know that.”
Woodland is playing in the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019, the same season in which he won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.
Woodland picked up his fifth PGA Tour victory in the Texas Children’s Houston Open on March 29, only 20 days after he revealed his PTSD diagnosis in an interview with the Golf Channel. He tied for seventh in the U.S. Open and for fourth in the BMW Championship after sharing the first-round lead.
At East Lake on Wednesday, Woodland credited his wife, Gabby, and his team of doctors and psychologists for helping him improve his mental health.
“My wife’s my rock,” he stated. “She’s the one that reminds me in tough times why I’m here, what I’m fighting for. This is the only dream I’ve ever had is to be a professional athlete. I owe it to my childhood self to fight every day.
“There’s a lot of days where I don’t want to do it. There’s a lot of days I don’t want to fight, but my wife reminds me why I am. It’s a tribute to my family who sacrificed so much and gave everything for me to go out and live my dreams.”
On a scale of 1 to 10, Woodland described his good days as 10s and his bad days as 1s.
“Like when I have a good day, I think I’m more appreciative,” Woodland stated. “I have a better perspective. My bad days are still 1s, so I struggle sometimes because it’s a massive drop now from 10 to 1. So, when I get off, it feels like the end of the world. Where before my good days were probably 7s, my bad days were 4s. I didn’t have a big drop. It was just, ‘Oh, it’s not great.’ I still struggle, but I’m learning.”
Woodland has already been named a U.S. team captain’s assistant for the upcoming Presidents Cup, which will be played at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago from Sept. 24 to Sept. 27.
If Woodland plays well again this week, he could potentially play his way onto the team as a player with one of Brandt Snedeker’s six captain’s picks. Woodland is currently 21st in points.
Snedeker will announce his captain’s picks Tuesday.
“I’ll tell you this — and Sneds knows this — there’s nothing I want more than to help Team USA,” Woodland stated. “I’ll run through a wall, not only for Sneds, but for the team. Through my struggles, the one thing that’s helped — like the Ryder Cup last year — [is] being around the team, being around the guys. There’s no moment that I felt safer than that. I’ll be in Chicago no matter what, and I’ll be doing everything I can to help Team USA be the best they can be.”
