In Gary Woodland's corner, the ex-fighter pilot was lending money for support

Lt. Col. Dan Rooney calls the cockpit of a military aircraft “an emotionally intense place.” He would know. Rooney served three combat tours in Iraq in the cockpit of an F-16 Viper before transitioning to a recruiting and training role with the Oklahoma Air Guard. Fighting carries an obvious emotional charge but so does, Rooney will tell you, commanding young pilots. Indeed, any extended periods of time flying at Mach 2 inside a 70-inch-by-50-inch bubble, no matter what your purpose, will leave you feeling other things when you return to earth.

“You don't see all the things you're fixing until you start getting down to it,” Rooney said in a phone interview Monday.

This condition is called post-traumatic stress disorder, which the Mayo Clinic says is caused by “an extremely stressful or frightening event—being a part of it or witnessing it.” Symptoms include, but are not limited to, nightmares, intense anxiety and dark, uncontrollable thoughts. Rooney's PTSD, he said, was manifested by claustrophobia, discomfort in crowds and a tendency to be startled by loud noises.

“Traditional methods,” he said. But I've never had anything as intense as what Gary is going through.

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That would be Gary Woodland, the 41-year-old Tour pro who captured his fifth PGA Tour title at the Texas Children's Houston Open on Sunday. That Woodland was playing at Memorial Park at all was a triumph of the human spirit. That he won the tournament from the get-go was one of the biggest factors in the endurance and victory of the Tour professional.

Even if you just follow the game casually, you probably know about Woodland's plight. About three years ago, Woodland began experiencing terrifying symptoms, including tremors, loss of appetite, uncontrollable shaking at night and a persistent fear of death — all of which, he soon learned, were caused by a tumor pressing on the part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety. In September 2023, doctors opened Woodland's skull and removed most, but not all, of the mass, in a high-risk operation that would cost Woodland his eyesight among other jobs. The process was deemed successful, and Woodland soon felt better, so much so that in January 2025 he returned to the PGA Tour, at the Sony Open.

“It's 'What can I do?'” Woodland said at the time. “Next week it will be four months since I had the surgery. That's probably the day they say after four months I should be very good, we'll see.”

Woodland missed the cut, and six more cuts in his next 10 starts. By the end of the season he had shown signs of more consistency but finished a lowly 155th in the FedEx Cup. In 2025, Woodland improved, finishing 72nd in the points race, but with one 10-of-22 finish he was still a long way from the 2019 US Open winner at Pebble Beach. Then came 2026, and what looked like a form regression, with three missed cuts in his first five starts.

What most viewers didn't know, however, was that The Woodland was still fighting – not quite as demonic as the kind that might pop into your head. Week after week, as fans, tour staff and volunteers, even Woodland's teammates let him, Woodland suffered in silence. That was until the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass earlier this month when Woodland finally broke that debilitating silence and opened up about his continued struggle, in a heart-wrenching interview with Golf Channel reporter Rex Hoggard.

Woodland revealed that she had been diagnosed with PTSD about a year earlier and had struggled, often during cycles, with symptoms such as anxiety and inattention. Woodland described a round in Napa when he was startled by a walking scorer. She was so upset that by the end of the cycle, Woodland said, she found herself going into the bathroom to cry. “There are days when it's hard — I'm crying in the scoring trailer, running to my car to hide,” he told Hoggard. “I don't want to live that way anymore.”

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Woodland began his collegiate career as a basketball player at Washburn University in his hometown of Topeka, Kans., before transferring to the University of Kansas to play golf. While Woodland was working at UK, his late college coach, Ross Randall, introduced Woodland to UK pilot-turned-golfer Dan Rooney, who was in town for a Jayhawks football game. This happened in 2006.

Woodland and Rooney hit it off – literally. They played golf together and it didn't take Rooney long to realize that Woodland was a rare talent. “He hit it harder and faster than anyone I've ever seen,” Rooney said. “I'm like this guy, he's like Superman.”

Rooney has his superhero-like qualities. In 2007, between combat tours in Iraq, he founded Folds of Honor, a non-profit organization that funds scholarships for spouses and children of fallen or disabled military service members and first responders; since its inception, the foundation has provided nearly 73,000 scholarships totaling north of $340 million. Rooney also founded Patriot Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla., where Folds of Honor is headquartered, and American Dunes in Grand Haven, Mich., where all proceeds go back to Rooney's foundation.

Woodland, whose grandparents served in the military, was drawn to Rooney and his causes. Rooney said the day Woodland got his PGA Tour card, in 2008, he called Rooney and said he wanted to put the Folds of Honor logo on his bag. Woodland has since become one of the foundation's most visible ambassadors.

But Rooney's relationship with Woodland goes beyond charity golf. In 2011, Rooney flew to Tampa to celebrate Woodland's first PGA Tour with him (and, Rooney jokes now, he talked Woodland's girlfriend Gabby Granado out of law school so she could go on the PGA Tour with Gary). In 2016, when Gary and Gabby tied the knot, Rooney took charge. In 2019, when Woodland had his big win, he was wearing the logo of Volition America, the clothing brand that Rooney started to help fund and raise awareness for Folds of Honor. “We didn't succeed in having this patriotic space,” Rooney said.

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Rooney and Woodland share at least one thing in common: their Christian faith. Rooney describes himself as the “prayer warrior” of Team Woodland, adding, “Every time there's something really difficult in the Woodland family, I think that's when I get calls to me like, 'Hey, we've got to pray.'”

One of those times came in September 2023 when doctors drilled a fist-sized hole in Woodland's cranium and removed a lesion that was compressing his amygdala, an almond-shaped structure inside the temporal lobe that creates fear and produces anxiety. Rooney said it is difficult to overestimate the power of surgery. “It is not clear where the tumor was, and how much the operation was disruptive,” said Rooney. The tumor was benign but “they don't fully understand what it was,” Rooney said. “They know what it was.”

Rooney knew that surgery, while effective, was not a complete cure. He knew his friend was still suffering. And scared. And that he may have returned to the Tour sooner than he should have. But Rooney said it wasn't until a few months ago that he began to fully realize “what the world knows now.”

Rooney knows many veterans beyond himself who have struggled with PTSD. They described to him feelings of being trapped in their own heads – “nervous channels” – and, in extreme cases, said that suicide felt like the only way out. “That's the part that I think people have a hard time understanding,” Rooney said.

Rooney knew that Woodland had strange feelings of hypervigilance, which made it difficult for him to be in the crowd. So, when Woodland accepted the vice-captaincy of Keegan Bradley's US Ryder Cup team last year, Rooney was concerned. “I'm like, 'How on earth are you going to go into the Ryder Cup feeling this way and dealing with these things?'” Rooney said. But this week was a break for Woodland. In an interview with the Golf Channel on Players, Woodland said being around his teammates and close friends on Tour makes him feel at ease. “I didn't have to hide it,” he said. “I can be me.”

Good days and bad days. This is how Woodland described his journey. One of the worst days came just last week, on the Friday of the Houston Open. By the time Woodland reached the 9th place, where the fans were pressed against the finish line, he said his consciousness had set in. The tour guide helped Woodland but he said, “I bogeyed the last 10 holes of the day.” After the round, when he visited the golf club to post a five-under 65 that would give him a 54-hole lead, Woodland said he was “struck.”

But then came something that Woodland had been unable to do for months: mental rehabilitation. He quieted his mind and took care of his business, knowing that one of the biggest rounds of his career was ahead of him. He said: “I fight.”[But] with the love and support I have around me, I have hope.”

On Sunday, Woodland shot a cool 67 and won by five. As he walked down the 18th fairway, the crowd chanted his name – “Ga-ry! Ga-ry!” — annoyed by one of Woodland's co-stars, Min Woo Lee. After Woodland holed the winning putt, Gabby joined him on the 18th green and Gary fell into his arms and cried. If you didn't have goosebumps, you didn't have a heartbeat.

Rooney wasn't there to celebrate with his friend, but, on what was Palm Sunday, he sent Woodland a message from afar. The goal of this message: “This is not about you, you are an image, you are a vessel through which God works to give everyone hope.”

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