Gary Woodland wins the Houston Open for first PGA Tour title since brain surgery

HOUSTON (AP) — Gary Woodland won the Houston Open on Sunday, an emotional moment that seemed so improbable 30 months ago when he had brain surgery, and even two weeks ago when he opened up about his frightening struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Woodland looked better than ever at Memorial Park, taking a one-shot lead into the final round and stretching it to seven shots until coasting home to a trophy that felt as big as his U.S. Open title at Pebble Beach in 2019.

He closed with a 3-under 67 to win by five shots over Nicolai Hojgaard. The gallery paused chanting his name so Woodland could roll in a 5-foot par putt. He stretched both arms, exhaled and looked to the blue sky before his tears began pouring.

“We play an individual sport out here, but I wasn't alone today,” Woodland said, his voice quivering with emotion. “Anyone struggling with something, I hope they see me and don't give up. Just keep fighting.”

Woodland has been a popular figure and powerful player since he left a two-sport college career and joined the PGA Tour. But he began to struggle in 2023, only to learn he had a lesion on the part of his brain that caused unfounded fears that he was dying.

Surgery in September 2023, which involved a baseball-sized hole cut from the side of his head, removed much of the lesion. His return in January 2024 looked fine on the outside, particularly last year when he was runner-up at the Houston Open.

But he was hurting badly with PTSD, once rushing to a portable bathroom to break down in tears when he was overcome with emotion. He chose two weeks ago to share his struggles in a Golf Channel interview.

“I appreciate that love and support. But inside, I feel like I’m dying, and I feel like I’m living a lie,” he said in the interview. “I want to live my dreams and be successful out here. But I want to help people, too. I realize now I’ve got to help myself first.”

He said this week going public made him feel “1,000 pounds lighter.” He still has moments, such as fans getting too close to him on the ninth tee Friday that made him hypervigilant. He said he was in tears in scoring after the second round before he reset and got on with his routine.

“Coming out, talking and asking for help, I didn’t do that last year. I didn’t do that early this year,” Woodland said. “I'm in a fight. With the love and support I have around me, I have hope.”

His physical strength sure didn't leave him. Woodland reached 196 mph ball speed on one tee shot Sunday, and more striking was the smooth control he showed over every shot.

He finished at 21-under 259 for his first victory since the U.S. Open, and the fifth of his career. This one came with a big bonus — it makes him eligible for the Masters in two weeks.

Hojgaard fell back with a double bogey on the par-3 seventh hole when it took two shots to get out of a bunker. He closed with a 71 and a consolation prize. He secured his position inside the top 50 in the world — going from No. 47 to No. 36 — to earn his invitation to the Masters.

Hojgaard and defending champion Min Woo Lee (67) chose to stay back on their way to the 18th green to give Woodland the stage to himself, a gesture rarely seen outside the majors. It spoke to Woodland's standing on the PGA Tour.

“We thought it was appropriate to let him have his moment,” Hojgaard said. “It was a pretty cool moment for Gary and it was cool to see. I’m really happy for him.”

Woodland felt huge relief by sharing his PTSD struggles, and he had some technical help with his golf. He went to a new putter to help his alignment, and he consulted coach Randy Smith before going to stiffer shafts in his irons because his speed had returned and that helped him have better control of his shots.

There was no chance controlling his emotions, certainly over the last hour when the outcome was obvious and the 18th hole when it became reality.

But he said it's still golf, and there's still a battle with his recovery from brain surgery.

“It's just another day. Today was a good day,” Woodland said with a smile and a short laugh. “But I've got a big fight ahead of me, and I'm going to keep going. But I'm proud of myself right now.”

His wife, Gabby, was with him all 18 holes with their three children at home. Woodland has said his wife was key to get him through surgery and what followed. “This has been hard on me. It's been a lot harder on her,” he said.

The victory moves him to No. 51 in the world — his highest ranking in five years — and makes him eligible for all the PGA Tour's remaining elite events this season.

Michael Thorbjornsen was in position to move into the top 50 and get into the Masters until he made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch on the back nine and stumbled to a 72 to finish well outside the top 10. ... Shane Lowry made a hole-in-one on the second hole, his fourth on the PGA Tour. The others came on No. 7 at Pebble Beach, No. 17 at the TPC Sawgrass and No. 12 at Augusta National. Adam Scott also made an ace on the 11th hole. ... PGA Tour rookie Johnny Keefer shot 64 and tied for third.

This version has been corrected. A previous version erroneously stated that Hojgaard made double bogey on a par 5.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Gary Woodland hits on the 18th fairway next to the gallery during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland, right, tips his hat up as he kisses his wife Gabby Woodland on the 18th green after winning the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland holds the championship trophy after winning the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland celebrates after sinking his final putt on the 18th green to win the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland tees off on the first hole during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland pumps his fist after sinking a birdie putt on the ninth hole during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland chips onto the eighth green during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Gary Woodland places his ball on the ninth green during the final round of the Texas Children's Houston Open golf tournament Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

All that talent at Arizona and Michigan. All that momentum and good vibes at UConn. And somebody has to be play the part of the unheralded “little guy.” At the Final Four next weekend, that role belongs, improbably, to Illinois.

In a sign of the times, the Illinii — a Big Ten team with more wins in the conference over the last seven seasons than any other program — will pass for something resembling Cinderella when college basketball’s biggest party kicks off in Indianapolis on Saturday.

The first challenge for coach Brad Underwood's team will be stopping a hard-charging UConn juggernaut that came from 19 points down and got a game-winner from the logo with 0.4 seconds left from an Indy native — Braylon Mullins — to make its third Final Four in the last four years.

The last two times the Huskies reached this point, they won the championship.

“It’s a UConn culture, a UConn heart,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We believe we’re supposed to win this time of year.”

All these teams do.

Arizona, led by Brayden Burries, and Michigan, with Yaxel Lendeborg, have up to nine NBA prospects between them.

The Wildcats opened as slight favorites — at plus-165 to win the championship, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. That was a shade ahead of the Wolverines, who are plus-180 after their 95-62 romp over Tennessee on Sunday.

But, in one of a few strange twists on the odds chart, the Wildcats are 1 1/2-point underdogs to Michigan in Saturday night’s second semifinal.

Illinois is a 2 1/2-point favorite over UConn and, in reality, it's the Huskies, at plus-550, who are the biggest long shot in Indy.

Even so, the fact that Illinois — the flagship university in the nation’s sixth most populous state and a school with an enrollment of nearly 60,000 — feels most like this year's out-of-nowhere underdog speaks more about the current state of college hoops than the Illini themselves.

They are a No. 3 seed — the highest number at the Final Four in two years. (UConn is a 2. Last season, all four No. 1s made it.)

This year's meeting of 1 vs. 1 — Michigan vs. Arizona — is a heavyweight matchup of power teams from power conferences meeting with everything at stake.

It’s a far cry from a mere three years ago, when mid-majors Florida Atlantic (coached by Dusty May, who now leads the Wolverines) and San Diego State crashed college basketball’s biggest party.

Since then, NIL and the transfer portal have redefined the contours of player movement, another spasm of realignment has made the big conferences bigger (Arizona, now in the Big 12, was in the Pac-12 in 2023), and the high-achieving underdogs that used to make March Madness what it is have gone into a slump.

Double-digit seeds won a total of five games in this tournament (not counting the play-in round). Two years ago, they won 11 and sent one team (N.C. State) to the Final Four.

Not surprisingly, Underwood — the coach who landed on the Illinois radar a decade ago by coaching double-digit seed Stephen F. Austin to a pair of upset wins in the tournament — views his program’s trip to the Final Four more as destiny than a once-in-a-lifetime story.

It is, however, the first trip for Illinois since 2005, when it lost to North Carolina in the title game.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant,” said Underwood, whose teams have won 96 Big Ten games since 2019-20, two more than Purdue. “I’ve never doubted us getting to a Final Four would happen. I have thought we have had other teams capable. But I also know how doggone hard it is to do it.”

The Big Ten knows all about this. Both Illinois and Michigan have a chance to deliver a title for the conference for the first time since Michigan State won it all in 2000.

The Illini, led by the so-called “Balkan Bloc” — a cohort of players with roots in Eastern Europe — have a potential NBA lottery pick of their own in guard Keaton Wagler.

Even so, the best-known name on the Illini roster might be Andrej Stojakovic, whose father, Peja, was a three-time NBA All-Star. Illinois is the third school in three years for the younger Stojakovic, who spent one season at Stanford and another at Cal before joining Underwood’s crew.

The task for Illinois: Figuring out who to key on across a roster that has five players who average double figures, led by Tarris Reed Jr.

The Wildcats-Wolverines game is a high-powered matchup of programs that have shown there’s more than one way to amass talent in the era of the unlimited transfer portal and big-money name, image and likeness deals.

Four of the five starters for Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats began their careers in Tucson; the fifth, Big 12 player of the year Jaden Bradley, moved over from Alabama and has been with the Wildcats for three years.

Meanwhile, the top four players in minutes played at Michigan — Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau — all arrived from the transfer portal.

In a twist that makes perfect sense these days, both coaches parlayed roots in the mid-majors to a spot on the sport’s biggest stage. Lloyd spent decades as a top assistant for Mark Few at Gonzaga before heading to Arizona to rebuild the program after the ouster of Sean Miller in 2021.

May led FAU to the Final Four before heading to the Michigan program that had thrived, then collapsed, under former Fab Five star Juwan Howard.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

UConn guard Braylon Mullins (24) celebrates after a basket against Duke during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

UConn forward Tarris Reed Jr. (5) reacts after the team's win against Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Arizona forward Ivan Kharchenkov smiles on the stage after a win over Purdue in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Kelley L Cox)

Illinois' Zvonimir Ivisic cuts part of the net after an Elite Eight game against Iowa in the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg (23) celebrates after defeating Tennessee in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

UConn guard Braylon Mullins, right, celebrates his game winning basket with guard Malachi Smith (0) during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament against Duke, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)