On Sept. 18, 2023, doctors cut a hole the size of a baseball in the side of Gary Woodland’s skull. They removed a lesion from his brain. And when they stapled him back up, they allowed Woodland to start a long journey: back to feeling like himself.

Thirteen months and one day later, Woodland is getting there.

Returning to competitive golf is, of course, only part of the equation. But the PGA Tour has been Woodland’s home and his place of work for a decade and a half, which means feeling good out here means feeling good, period. Woodland had plenty of good on Saturday in Las Vegas when he shot a bogey-free six-under 65 in the third round of the Shriners Children’s Open; he’s T3 headed to Sunday, just one shot back of the lead. While several players with later Saturday tee times have yet to complete their third rounds, one thing is certain: Woodland will head to the final round with a chance to win for the first time since everything changed.

The symptoms had started earlier in 2023, when Woodland couldn’t shake a set of new, unsettling feelings. Fear and anxiety plagued his thoughts; he had tremors in his hands and often felt low on energy. An MRI ordered to rule out Parkinson’s revealed the brain lesion instead. It was pushing on a tract of his brain that signals fear.

For four and a half months, he told the AP, he’d spent every day “thinking I was going to die,” he said. “Didn’t matter if I was driving a car, on an airplane, I thought everything was going to kill me. You can imagine leading up to surgery how I felt going into having my head cut open and operated on. The fear going into that was awful.”

But the surgery was successful. Gratitude replaced fear. And so began the road back.

Woodland started swinging a club after five weeks. He returned to competition in January. And has played nearly a full slate of tournaments in 2024. But the comeback was rushed and challenging; no step has come easy. While Woodland made 12 of 21 cuts in the PGA Tour’s regular season, he cracked the top 30 just twice and didn’t post a single top 20. That was understandable, of course. But for someone accustomed to better, it was tough to swallow.

“Oh, it’s all frustrating. Everything is,” he said after a promising first round at the Sanderson Farms earlier this month. “When you play like this, it makes all that time worth it, though. We get it; it’s a grind. I’ve been out here a long time. There’s a lot of ups and downs. But when you’re coming from where I’ve been and you’re starting to see signs, it’s been a little easier to stay positive.”

Woodland finished T16 at the Sanderson, his best result of the year. There’d been signs — he was still third on the PGA Tour in clubhead speed, for instance, and fourteenth in driving distance, and his approach-play numbers looked good, and he knew he could hit the shots — but it was reassuring to put a full tournament together. Even better, he said he was making progress in the most important area: he was finally starting to feel good.

“It’s just all coming together,” he said. “I’ve been over a year now from surgery. Starting to feel a lot better, which helps. That helps everything. Helps practice, help you live life better.”

Woodland said that he probably rushed his comeback at the start of the year and came out “a little too early.” He didn’t know how it would feel and he didn’t know how that would change. Now, though?

“It’s been recent. Just been a change in the last couple weeks, starting to feel more like myself again.

“I see it. I’m happier. I feel better. I’ve been able to be [around more] stimulation. I can be around my kids when they’re going nuts now. Like, everything is just starting to get back, which is beautiful.”

Good golf has followed. Woodland says he’s been working hard with renowned coach Randy Smith — who works with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, to name one — and that he’d seen the fruits of those labors at home. Now he’s seeing them at his second consecutive tournament. Woodland caught the good side of the draw at the Shriners and opened 66-68. Then came Saturday’s 65, which took him from T13 to T3. He’s No. 148 in the FedEx Cup and could use a boost.

“Everything is starting to come together,” he reiterated. “I feel a lot better, for one. That’s a one. That’s a huge help. But I’ve seen some signs. I’ve been back with Randy for a couple months now. I am starting to drive it better, iron play, controlling the golf ball like I haven’t in a long time, which is nice.

“Then putts start going in, start putting some good scores up.”

Woodland was relieved he’d finished his third round after a start-stop tournament schedule; he’ll savor a few extra hours on Sunday morning.

“I’m not too worried about what anyone else is doing right now. I’m focused on myself. I’m excited to start feeling better and see great things in my game. And excited to sleep in tomorrow.”

One thing at a time.

Dylan Dethier

Golf.com Editor

Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.