‘I thought everything was going to kill me’: Gary Woodland says he was gripped by fear of death before brain surgery

American golfer Gary Woodland said he was “fear-driven every day, mostly around death” in the months before undergoing brain surgery last year.

American golfer Gary Woodland said he was “fear-driven every day, mostly around death” in the months before undergoing brain surgery last year. The former US Open champion returns to competitive action on Thursday for the first time since the craniotomy to remove a lesion on his brain on September 18. Woodland had made his diagnosis public a few weeks before, yet had been experiencing life-affecting symptoms for months prior, beginning in the midst of a PGA Tour event at the end of April. The 39-year-old had been asleep on the eve of the final round at the Mexico Open in Vallarta when he jolted awake. Immediately, “fear set in,” Woodland said Tuesday. “I didn’t know what it was,” he told reporters at the Sony Open – the second event of the 2024 PGA Tour season – in Honolulu. “Maybe a panic attack, I didn’t know … shaking, hands were really tremoring.”