ORLANDO, Fla. – As an example of how coveted a spot in this week’s PNC Championship field has become, consider Gary Woodland’s wait.
Woodland, one of the PGA Tour’s most endearing and inspiring figures, won the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, his lone major and the basic requirement to play in the PNC Championship alongside a family member.
For five years he waited and hoped for an invitation to play the “challenge season” event at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, but the call hadn’t come.
“We talked about it for a while. It was nice to get the call,” said Woodland, who will finally play the PNC this week alongside his father, Dan. “This is a special one. I know it’s a major-champion deal, so I knew when I won in ’19 that we’d have an opportunity. From a health standpoint, this is the first year that we’ve really been able to do it. It was nice to be able to get that call and be able to do it for sure.”
The invitation to the year-ending team event is particularly special following a difficult few seasons for Woodland, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2023 and continues to deal with symptoms following surgery.
Getting a chance to play professional golf again following his diagnosis was special, but the opportunity to compete alongside his father, who introduced him to golf, is an exhale moment following a trying spell.
“My whole life is in perspective now. To be honest, I probably took it for granted being out here. This is my 17th year out here on Tour. You just expect that to happen every year,” Woodland said. “It’s still been a journey, right? I’m still battling. I’m still grinding. Even for us, my first tournament back after surgery was Sony, and I got a call the Saturday before from my mom that my dad got diagnosed with cancer. So my poor mom’s been through it more than either one of us, dealing with us.
“But he rang the bell [for being cancer-free] almost a year ago now, and I’ve gotten to a point where I’m still healing but I’m getting better. This is a special week for both of us for perspective for sure.”
The biggest challenge for the Woodlands this week will likely be expectations, with Dan Woodland admitting that when he received the news he would be teamed with his son in the event, it came with a healthy amount of competitive anxiety.
“Unfortunately, I don’t play a whole lot. Gary gave me a call about a month ago, month and a half ago, and I can tell you, I’ve hit more golf balls the last month and a half than I have the last 25 years,” Dan Woodland said. “So that kind of explains it all. Like I say, I spend a lot of time with my grandkids, but how can you turn this opportunity down? It’s awesome.”