“I was very fear-driven, mostly around death” - Gary Woodland opens up on his brain surgery and returns to the Sony Open

Gary Woodland returns to action on the PGA Tour this weekend. The 39-year-old golfer will tee off at the 2024 Sony Open on Thursday, less than four months after undergoing brain surgery to remove tumors. Ahead of the competition in Honolulu, he has now revealed that he lived the past few months in fear of death.

Woodland underwent a craniotomy on September 18, 2023. He took to social media to inform fans that he initially tried to treat the symptoms with medication. However, the golfer was forced to undergo surgery. Now, the 2019 US Open champion has revealed that he was in fear throughout the process and that he occasionally woke up in the middle of the night shaking with fear.

Taking about his brain lesion surgery at the Sony Open press conference in Hawaii, Gary Woodland said:

“I started feeling some symptoms in April, couple weeks after Augusta. I mean there's a lot jolting, specifically middle of the night. Shaking, hands were really trembling, a lot of fear. That was the one that scared me the most was I’m a very optimistic person, believe good things will happen, and I was very fear driven everyday, mostly around death. And lots of appetite, chills, no energy. It's started getting pretty bad.”

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Gary Woodland says he was suffering memory loss before surgery

Woodland also revealed that he enquired about medication for anxiety at the time, as he was “shaking so bad” with fear. The jolting he was experiencing at night was partial seizures and this led to “horrible side effects” like loss of memory.

However, the golfer added that he wanted to continue playing and he accepted treatment for the issue. He added:

“It was hard because we didn't tell anybody. It was just we didn't understand either. We didn't know exactly what was going on. My wife (Gabby) was flying out most weekends because I didn't want to be alone.

“Sleeping was the worst part because I was jolting, jumping out of bed with fear, mostly like I said around death. My caddie pulled me aside, 'You can't play this way. You got to go get help. You got to get fixed.'”

Woodman further stated:

“I would be standing over a club and forget which club I'm hitting. I would be lining up putts and think, 'This is taking too long. I'm just going to hit it.' Didn't have the focus or the energy. And I went the next week to see a specialist. He was like, 'We gotta go in and get this out. Cause medicines are not slowing down the fear.' Biopsy was too risky where it was in my brain. So, surgery to remove that, was the next step.”

He felt completely relieved once the surgery was done. The PGA Tour star noted that his fears went down once the treatment was done.

Gary Woodland returns to competitive golf this weekend at the Sony Open and is set to tee off at 12:40 pm ET on the 10th tee. He will be joined by Kevin Kisner and Tyrrell Hatton.