Woodland makes ‘inspiring’ return after a terrifying brain tumor

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Gary Woodland thought he was going to die. Suddenly golf didn’t matter as much as it used to.

Stress over how many birdies or bogeys he might make in a tournament round, where he would finish on the leaderboard, whether or not he was going to qualify for major championships, these were now afterthoughts.

Woodland, the affable 39-yearold from Kansas who counts the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach among his four career PGA Tour victories, underwent brain surgery Sept. 18, and now he’s back on the PGA Tour playing alongside the best players in the world, doing something he never thought he’d be able to do again.

To say it’s all been a bit overwhelming would be an understatement.

At 9:25 a.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, Woodland stood on the elevated first tee at Riviera Country Club — perhaps the most beautiful first hole in golf — alongside playing partners Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, about to begin his fourth tournament since the surgery, the opening round of the Genesis Invitational.

Woods, the tournament host, gave Woodland a special exemption into the field.

All Woodland did was go out and birdie the first three holes.

He finished 1-under par, besting both Woods and Thomas (1-over), but the number didn’t matter much.

Not when, just five months ago, surgeons were cutting his head open to remove a benign tumor that was pressing against the part of the brain that controls fear, which was causing Woodland to have frightening nighttime seizures and panic attacks believing he was going to die.

When I asked him after his round when he was most scared, Woodland said, “Before or after the surgery?’’ Both. “Before surgery, where the [tumor] was sitting and where it was pushing in my brain controls fear, and I just thought I was going to die,’’ Woodland said. “Then, when I went into surgery, I thought, ‘Am I never going to see my kids again?’ Then, ‘If I get home, am I ever going to play golf again?’

“After surgery, I wasn’t able to do anything for a few weeks, and I wondered, ‘Am I going to be the same? Is the fear really going to go away? Am I going to be able to do what I was doing before?’ That’s been the scary part.

“I still have a daily reminder when I take anti-seizure medicine twice a day. I still get nervous. I will have little twitching going on. Most of my seizures were at night, so when I get into bed and if it’s just a little twitch, I’m like, ‘S--t, are we back in this thing again? Because they didn’t get it all [the tumor]’. It scares the s--t out of me.’’

That Woodland is back playing golf again this quickly is nothing short of miraculous. It’s inspiring.

He’s played in three tournaments this season and hasn’t made a cut yet. Woodland believes the overwhelming sense of emotion and gratitude he has for simple being back out here has distracted him a bit.

Playing in Woods’ group on Thursday, with swells of fans surrounding every tee box and green,

snapped him out of that and honed his focus on the task at hand to the point where he called Thursday “the best I played’’ since he returned.

“I think playing with [Woods] helped me, because it brought my focus in,’’ Woodland said.

Woodland conceded he thought he was going to be able to jump right back into it once he recovered from surgery. It hasn’t been that easy, though.

“I struggled for a long time and figured out why I was struggling and what was going on,’’ he said. “I figured, ‘OK, now I’ll play great golf again.’ It’s been a little bit harder than I thought, but it’s coming.’’

Woodland related some dark moments after he played the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

“I had a rough week, just wasn’t there, didn’t feel like myself again, which was frustrating,’’ he said. “When that happens, I’ve got to get into a dark room. Really concussion protocol more than anything, turn the lights off, no noise, no overstimulation.

“And you play with T.W., there’s a lot [of stimulation]. So, I was very happy and pleased with today with everything going on that I was able to stay in it. It was definitely the best day I had all year.’’

A deserving day for Woodland, truly one of the good guys on the PGA Tour.

“What Gary has gone through, I don’t think people have really given it enough play,’’ Woods said. “We haven’t had enough conversation about what he’s gone through and how difficult life was for Gary and how scary that was. To have a surgery and remove a tumor out of his brain and to come back and play the Tour … that’s an unbelievable story.”

Rory McIlroy called Woodland’s journey “inspiring.’’

“To see him come back to the other side of that and start to play again and get back out here is amazing,’’ McIlroy told The Post. “It’s just great to see him back out here and doing what he loves.’’

McIlroy is not alone with those thoughts.