Four Months After Brain Surgery, Gary Woodland Is Back

The 2019 U.S. Open champion is playing in the PGA Tour's first full-field event in Honolulu.

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Some four months following brain surgery, Gary Woodland is returning to the PGA Tour this week at the Sony Open. The 2019 U.S. Open champion has not played since August at the Wyndham Championship, his last event in a season that saw him play 24 times with two top-10 finishes.

Woodland, 39, announced on Aug. 30 that he would be undergoing surgery on Sept. 18 to remove a lesion that was found on his brain. He noted he had been trying to treat the issue with medication before deciding on surgery to remove the lesion.

On Sept. 19, the day after the surgery, Woodland’s team posted that "a majority of the tumor has been removed." A four-time PGA Tour winner, Woodland will be part of the first full-field event of the year in Honolulu. He finished 115th in the Final FedEx Cup standings for 2023.

Gary Woodland had brain surgery in September / Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports

Will Zalatoris will also be making his first official start on the PGA Tour since March. He withdrew prior to the first round of the Masters and then had surgery on his lower back that weekend. He played his first event in December at the unofficial Hero World Challenge, where he finished last in the 20-player field.

A Few Other Things…

> The DP World Tour schedule resumes with a new event called the Dubai Invitational, which is a week prior to the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. Rory McIlroy headlines the field and will be joined by Tommy Fleetwood, who is making the long journey from Maui. The event is at the Dubai Creek Resort. Others in the field are European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, Adrian Meronk and twins Nicolai and Rasumus Hojgaard.

> The PGA Tour heads from Maui to Oahu for the Sony Open in Honolulu, the first full-field event of the year.

> The Sony is the first of three events that will help determine the next signature event at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am next month. That field already has 60 players set: the top 50 from the 2023 FedEx Cup standings and then players 51 through 60 who earned that spot through the fall. Now there are five spots to be determined via FedEx Cup points earned at the Sony, American Express Championship and the Farmers Insurance Open. The top five players not already in the field will earn spots for Pebble Beach. Another points list will include those events plus the WM Phoenix Open to add five players to the Genesis Invitational field.

Both of those signature tournaments can also see players added who are among the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking if not otherwise exempt. A player who wins a PGA Tour event is also exempt for all the remaining signature events, which will also get four sponsor invites.

> Sungjae Im set a PGA Tour 72-hole record (1983-present) with 34 birdies. The previous record was 32, matched by Jon Rahm at the same Kapalua course last year. Im shot a final-round 62 that included a career-high 11 birdies. ... Winner Chris Kirk will move to No. 21 in the world. … No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler tied for fifth, and although this putting has improved, he still did it with a negative-strokes gained of .659 which put him 45th of 59 players in the field.

> The first round of the Masters is 94 days away.