The PNC Championship brings together families of golf elites every December. Many golfers, including Tiger Woods, John Daly, and Bernhard Langer, enjoy playing with their kids in a 36-hole scramble match. This December, too, the event has brought together golfers and their children, making everyone happy. But amid this happiness is the painful, yet motivating, story of Gary Woodland.

“It’s tough. This year was probably the hardest year I battled. I’m still healing, right? At the end of the day, I’ve still got a tumor in my head on my brain.” Gary Woodland said, when asked about his medical condition and how it affects his daily schedule. “I’m healing. I’m getting better. The surgeons and doctors are happy with where I’m at, but I have a long way to go. It’s a learning process every day.”

“I’ve taken off the last couple months to focus more on my health to hopefully it’s a long year and try to battle and get through it. It’s getting better. It’s still a long way from where we want it to be.”

The 4x PGA Tour winner is playing at the PNC Championship 2025 with his father, Dan Woodland. He played the full schedule in 2024 and 2025. Last year, he played 26 events across the season, stretching from the Sony Open in Hawaii to the RSM Classic. He made the cut in 15 of the 26 starts he had and finished T9 at the Shriners Children’s Open.

However, he took a little break this year to focus on his health. In 2025, the American golfer had 22 starts and made the cut in 16 of them. His best performance came at the 2025 Texas Children’s Houston Open. The Baycurrent Classic at the start of October was the last PGA Tour event he played. This increasing number of cuts shows signs of both his health and golf slowly getting back to where they were. However, it will be a long struggle for Gary Woodland to reach where he wants to be.

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What is Gary Woodland’s medical condition and when was it diagnosed?

Gary Woodland was diagnosed with a brain lesion. It is a benign tumor located in the part of his brain that controls fear and anxiety. This has led to severe symptoms, including partial seizures, tremors, chills, and loss of appetite. The symptoms began in April 2023 at the Mexico Open.

The 2019 US Open champion experienced jolting awakenings, which were later identified as partial seizures. An MRI in May 2023 confirmed the lesion. He managed with anti-seizure medication through the summer. But the medications started taking a toll on him. He faced side effects like memory loss, fatigue, and depleted energy.

Gary Woodland publicly announced the condition in late August 2023. He took it to the social media platform X to reveal his health condition. “After consulting with multiple specialists and discussing with my family, we’ve made the decision that surgery to remove the lesion is the best course of action,” the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open wrote.

He underwent craniotomy surgery on September 18, 2023. Through the surgery, the doctors removed half the tumor through a baseball-sized hole in his skull. The rest remains stable, unchanged for two years as of December 2025.

“It hasn’t grown in two years, so we’re good with that, but it’s in a part of the brain that causes me a lot of issues, and I’m still battling and grinding with it,” Gary Woodland said at the PNC Championship 2025 while sharing his health update.

How has Gary Woodland’s health journey affected his public appearances and golf participation?

Woodland’s health forced extended breaks, including post-surgery recovery through late 2023. The last event he played in 2023 was the Wyndham Championship, before going into surgery. After skipping the entire fall schedule, he was back at the Sony Open in 2024.

Garry Woodland also sacrificed competitive edge, missing the PGA Tour playoffs narrowly at No. 72 in 2025. It could have been a huge trade-off. Thankfully, he finished 90th in the FedEx Fall standings in 2025. However, he could have also ended below 100 and lost full exempt status.

Besides that, he missed cuts at many events, including the 2025 Genesis Invitational and the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open. These missed cuts came during his daily struggles, like focus loss, disjointed routines, and ongoing symptoms from the tumor’s location. Gary Woodland’s public visibility persisted through select 2025 appearances, Ryder Cup assistant role, PGA Tour Courage Award, and his PNC debut with father Dan.

Gary Woodland’s journey shows how much strength it takes to compete while managing an ongoing health condition that extends far beyond the golf course. As he continues to heal and adjust, his focus remains on regaining stability.