By Don Riddell, CNN
Augusta National (CNN) — Gary Woodland is back at Augusta for the first time since 2024 and he is highly emotional. He also thinks that somebody might try to kill him.
Woodland suffers from severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, having endured a series of personal trials and tragedies, including a brain lesion that was affecting his mental health. Despite having the growth removed in 2024, he still feels uneasy in crowds, leading him to keep a security detail on the course since he worries that somebody might try to hurt him.
As the American golfer prepares to tee it up at Augusta on Thursday, he spoke of the torment that he’s expecting in The Masters. “It’s a big week for me,” he said. “The fans are very close on the tee boxes. There’s probably not a safer golf tournament in the world, so I’m happy for that, but it’s still a battle in my head if I’m safe or not.”
At the Houston Open last month, Woodland stared down his demons to win his first tournament in almost seven years. It was a triumph he couldn’t have imagined in recent years because he’s no longer playing against the course or his opponents – he’s also now playing against himself.
“I got hypervigilant on the ninth hole,” he explained of his round on the Friday of the tournament in Houston, “and I battled the last 10 holes thinking people were trying to kill me.”
Woodland says he couldn’t have overcome his anxiety without the comfort blanket of his security detail, and he’ll be looking out for protection at Augusta, too.
“Turning around and knowing that I’m safe, having somebody there with me, it’s the only reason I won two weeks ago,” he said, seemingly on the verge of tears throughout his entire press conference in the Augusta Media Center.
“The whole deal for me is it’s visual, right? If I can see somebody, then I can remind myself that I’m safe constantly. I don’t have control when this thing hits me, and it’s tough. It can be a fan. It can be a walking scorer. It can be a camera guy running by me, just any startlement from behind me can trigger this pretty quickly.”
There is no such thing as an easy win on the PGA Tour, but it would be hard to imagine anything harder than the journey Woodland navigated to victory in Texas. Since his previous win at the US Open in 2019, Woodland admits that he’s been to hell and back.
A quick glance at his resume would give the impression that Woodland has it all: a major title and a total of five PGA Tour wins to his name, with over $38 million in the bank from prize money alone.
But his professional success masks a series of devastating personal tragedies. His first son Jaxson should have been a twin, but his sibling died in utero, and then in 2023, he underwent surgery to remove a lesion on his brain that had been pressuring the amygdala that controls fear and anxiety.
“It was hell for me,” he told CNN Sports in 2025, “it was very hard every day. Every situation, from driving in a car to getting on an airplane to walking down the street, everything was the end of the world for me.”
Woodland sought counsel from a combat veteran ahead of his surgery and he agonized over writing letters to his three young children, just in case he didn’t make it. But he didn’t have to worry; the operation was successful and he says he felt immediate relief, returning to competition less than four months later.
But it wasn’t until recently that he admitted he was still in trouble, contending with PTSD from his past ordeals. As such, his victory in Houston was overwhelmingly cathartic and it’s led him back to Augusta.
“Winning was probably the last thing on my mind for a long time. Unfortunately, probably playing here was the last thing on my mind for a long time,” he said. “There’s nothing like driving down Magnolia Lane. I definitely drove a little slower this year than I ever have. I’m definitely taking it all in this week for sure.”
Woodland says that golf has saved him, but his love of the game also means that his struggles are ever-present.
“It’s given me purpose, for sure,” he told CNN this week. “When I was diagnosed with this brain tumor three years ago, my number one thought was I wasn’t going to let this thing win.
“I’ve dreamed of being a professional athlete since I was a little kid, and I would do everything in my power to live that dream for my childhood self. Golf has given me something, a lot more to fight for than just myself and my family.”
But to illustrate how he seems to be in a perpetual state of conflict, Woodland added, “When I’m not on the course, I’m in a battle, and when I’m on the course, I’m in a battle.”
Crucially, however, Woodland says he no longer feels as though he’s alone – a problem shared is a problem halved.
“This is honestly one battle that I’m not able to do on my own. I tried, and it wasn’t working,” he explained. “Winning the US Open in ’19 had the biggest impact in my life from a golf standpoint. There’s no doubt.
“I hope winning in Houston had a bigger impact on somebody else’s life. I hope somebody that’s struggling with something sees this guy out here fighting every day and still living his dreams. I’ve turned a weakness into a strength. I wouldn’t even say it as a weakness, but I think that’s the stigma out there.”
It’s at this stage of the narrative where it seemed appropriate to ask him how this story might end, after all the struggles, with all the uncertainty, how would it feel if it culminated with the green jacket being slipped over his shoulders.
His answer to CNN only served to illustrate the magnitude of the challenge he’s facing: “I’ve got to worry about today. I just don’t have the luxury of looking ahead.”
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