Gary Woodland hits hole-in-one on Masters par three day just months after brain surgery
Gary Woodland hits hole-in-one on Masters par three day just months after brain surgery
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Former US Open champion, Gary Woodland, sank his first career hole-in-one on The Masters par three day mere months after returning to the sport following surgery to remove a brain tumour.
The 39-year-old first showed symptoms of the lesion in the brain back in April 2023 after experiencing tremors and chills. An MRI eventually revealed the tumor but Woodland continued to play golf until his surgery in September.
After the operation he returned to the PGA Tour in January but failed to make the cut at Hawaii’s Sony Open and is hoping for a better outing at Augusta National this week.
“It came out of nowhere,” Woodland revealed back in January. “It was a horrible experience. All you wanted to do was go to sleep to not think about it, and going to sleep was the worst part.
“That is where all the seizures were happening. It was a horrible four, five months. As it got worse, loss of appetite, chills, no energy. It started getting so bad I called my doctor who I’ve been with for 13 years and I was like, man, I need something to calm me down.”
Rickie Fowler won the contest by two shots and will look to become the first player to win both the par three tournament and The Masters in the same week. (Getty Images)
The traditional par three contest is played on the eve of The Masters every year and sees players take part in a light-hearted event with members of their families serving as caddies.
Woodland’s ace came on the sixth hole from around 140 yards out from the pin. His six-year-old son Jaxson and twin four-year-old daughters Maddox and Lennox caddied for him during the competition.
“Obviously it’s been a journey,” Woodland said about his recovery. “It’s been a process for the last year. But there’s nowhere I’d rather be right now.”
Wednesday’s contest also saw Sepp Straka sink a hole-in-one on the fifth hole while Viktor Hovland and Luke List emulated Woodland with aces on the sixth and Lucas Glover nailed his tee shot at the seventh. There were five holes-in-one in total during the event which equalled last year’s tally.
Rickie Fowler, who is featuring at The Masters for the first time since 2020, claimed a two-shot victory in the par three challenge registering five birdies in a bogeyless round of 22 to top the leaderboard ahead of Straka, JT Poston and amateur Santiago de la Fuente.
The 35-year-old, who had wife Allison and daughter Maya as his caddies, is now looking to become the first player in history to win both the par three contest and The Masters tournament in the same week.
