Nightmare nights for former major champion with brain tumor

Gary Woodland looks before putting on the green of the 10th hole during round 1 of the Sony Open in Hawaii. Photo: AFP

In the second half of April 2023, he began to show unusual symptoms. For more than a month, Woodland was often tired, had a foggy mind, shaky hands, lost his appetite, and had seizures in his sleep every night.

He saw a doctor, had an MRI scan of his brain, and found a small area of inflammation in the left side of his brain that controls fear and anxiety. "You're not going crazy. The symptoms you've been experiencing are a normal reaction to inflammation in your brain," the doctor assured him, and prescribed a sedative. This worked for a while.

While using it, Woodland continued to compete on the PGA Tour. However, at the Wyndham Championship in August, the Kansas-born American golfer showed serious signs, forgetting the type of iron he had just used, and suddenly using it while trying to putt... After the tournament, his caddie Brennan Little advised Woodland: "You can't continue playing in this condition. You need to get it fixed immediately."

Woodland went to a hospital in Florida and had another MRI. This time, the doctor recommended surgery as soon as possible and also made it clear that he could lose his sight or worse, become paralyzed because the area around the surgery site has blood vessels connecting to his eye and left side of his body.

After Woodland agreed, the surgical team made a baseball-sized hole in his skull and removed the tumor on September 18. The results were considered successful. Woodland regained consciousness after two nights in the intensive care unit.

"They brought a wheelchair in for me to leave the place, but I refused and said I had gone in by myself, so I would go out by myself. So I just went straight to the car to go home," he said.

Two days after being discharged from the hospital, Woodland installed a practice mat in the dining room to quickly regain his professional feeling. After four more weeks of recovery, the doctor agreed to let him start practicing.

More than a week ago, Woodland had a brain MRI with stable results. Thanks to that, the golfer born in 1984 decided to compete in the Sony Open, thereby returning to the PGA Tour. Finishing round 1 on January 11, Woodland ranked T91 with a score of +1 while the top of the table was at -8.

Woodland has been playing golf professionally since 2007. To date, he has won three cups, including the 2019 US Open major, after 340 tournaments on the PGA Tour, and his total prize money has reached nearly 33.43 million USD.

National Emblem

Source link