Gary Woodland Shares Passionate Message About Not Taking Anything For Granted After Receiving Courage Award

Gary Woodland's life turned into one filled with fear and complete uncertainty in the Fall of 2023 when he underwent surgery to remove a lesion from his brain. In less than two years' time, the former U.S. Open champion went from fearing for his life, writing personal letters to his three children, his wife, and loved ones if the operation didn't go well, to now back on the PGA Tour with a new, very special piece of hardware to put on his mantle.

Woodland received the PGA Tour Courage Award ahead of this week's Cognizant Classic in Florida, an honor given to a player who overcomes adversity through courage and perseverance. 

Asked about what the award meant to him, the 40-year-old broke down in tears.

"It's been a hard journey for me," Woodland said with tears in his eyes. "The last couple years has been really hard. Receiving this is a testament to the people around me because there's no way, one, I'd be back playing or no way I'd be sitting here today if it wasn't for them."

After a successful operation, Woodland made his return to the PGA Tour at the 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii, which is when he went into further detail about the legitimate horrors he and his family went through.

"The doctors kept telling me I was OK, but this thing which was pushing on the part of my brain which controls fear and anxiety... it didn't matter if I was driving a car or on an airplane. I'd be thinking the bin is going to fall on me - I just thought everything was going to kill me," Woodland said ahead of last year's Sony Open.

Not being able to control a fear of your life and having to have your brain operated on puts life in an entirely different perspective, and for Woodland, it's made him realize that you can not take anything for granted.

"I truly love being out here. This is my 17th year on TOUR. I probably took it for granted. 2011 through 2019 I had a nice stretch. I think I was in the TOUR Championship seven out of nine years, won four times, won a major. You take for granted this is what it's going to be like," Woodland told the media in Florida on Wednesday. 

"That was taken away from me, and it was almost taken away from me for good. I realized how much I enjoyed that. I realized how much I enjoyed coming and doing the things week in, week out, the pro-ams, everything that you'd probably say, this is -- take a little for granted. I don't take it for granted anymore. I enjoy that. I enjoy each day because I know what the alternative is, and I don't want that."

Woodland made 26 starts on Tour in 2024 and missed 11 cuts to go along with one Top 10. Most players would call that a below-average year, but for Woodland, it may very well have been the greatest season of his career because he was simply able to be out there, walking the fairways, and competing.

As for the 2025 campaign, Woodland has made three of four cuts this year, with all three finishes coming inside the Top 22 on the leaderboard.