Gary Woodland at TOUR Championship but still receiving grief for recent topped tee shot

ATLANTA – Given that he qualified for the TOUR Championship, Gary Woodland has hit a lot of great golf shots this season. But he has received plenty of reaction from his peers – and his family – over what might be his worst of the bunch.

Woodland made a move into the FedExCup top 30 last week with his T4 finish at the BMW Championship, where he contended for the title deep into the weekend. But he was nearly undone by his tee shot on the ninth hole Sunday at Bellerive Country Club, where he cold topped his driver and watched the ball bound into a penalty area just 96 yards off the tee box.

Woodland made double bogey and, while he rebounded to shoot a final-round 69, he still received plenty of friendly jabs about the misfire once he got off the course.

“My dad and I will play in the PNC (Championship) again this year, the father and son,” Woodland said Wednesday. “When I turned my phone on after the round it wasn’t ‘congrats’ or ‘good playing,’ it was ‘Hey, get that shot out of the way. I can’t afford to have that in the scramble.’”

The ribbing continued into this week’s TOUR Championship, where Woodland was in attendance Tuesday night as Notah Begay III was presented with the Payne Stewart Award. Also in attendance was U.S. Team Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker, who named Woodland as one of his captain’s assistants last week for the upcoming matches at Medinah Country Club. Snedeker congratulated Woodland on his strong play in St. Louis – minus one particular shot on Sunday.

“I don’t think I’ll live that one down for a while,” Woodland said. “I think that one’s going to stick around for a while. I’m proud of myself for how I rebounded after that. It shocked me so much. I think I could have let everything get away.”

Rebounding has been the name of the game this year for Woodland, who is making his first appearance at the TOUR Championship since 2019 when he arrived at East Lake as the reigning U.S. Open champion. His victory at the Texas Children’s Houston Open was his first in seven years, and he has added five top-10 finishes since that watershed win in March. The return of form all comes against the backdrop of a very public battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, which stemmed from his 2023 brain surgery and which he revealed at THE PLAYERS Championship.

“I think we’re fortunate in sport that you get inspirational stories along the way, and Gary has definitely been one of those,” said reigning FedExCup champ Tommy Fleetwood. “I think he’s been amazing in how he’s kind of been open about his journey with us all. He doesn’t have to do that, for sure.”

Woodland shared that while he received “a hundred” texts when he shared the news of his brain surgery, he received “thousands” of supportive messages in the wake of his PTSD diagnosis.

“People, I don’t think, can relate to the brain surgery,” Woodland explained. “People can relate to what I’m battling now.”

Woodland made his lone Presidents Cup appearance as a player in 2019, and while he’s assured of being in the U.S. team room next month in Chicago in some form or fashion, he has one last chance to shine inside the ropes ahead of Snedeker’s final picks next week. Everything remains on the table for the 42-year-old, who shared that he will “run through a wall” to help the Americans next month in Chicago whether as a player or captain’s assistant.

Regardless of his result in Atlanta, it’s been an inspirational season – even with one shot he’d like to have back.

“I rebounded and hung in there pretty well, and let that one shot go,” Woodland said. “Because at the end of the day, it was just one shot.”