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Two-time Kansas Am champion Woodland awaits return to tour
   By Brent Maycock, Topeka Capital-Journal

   Things aren't completely back to normal in Gary Woodland's world.
   He can't swing a golf club without feeling sore for a day or two afterwards. He can't hit the ball a country mile like he's done for years. He can't play a complete round.
   But each day, Woodland gets a little closer to being able to do all that and more, and right

now, that's all he can ask for.
"I'm tired as hell, but that's a good thing," Woodland said after a recent workout session in Dallas with coach Randy Smith. "It's just nice to be off the couch."
Indeed, the seven months since Woodland decided to cut short his rookie season on the PGA Tour because of a shoulder injury have been both physically and mentally trying for the 25-year-old Topeka native. Tougher than Q-School. Tougher than the

U.S.

Open.
   For the bulk of that time, Woodland couldn't do anything. No running, no chipping, no putting. Nothing.
   "I think I saw about every movie possible," Woodland said. "It felt like 25 years, like I doubled my lifetime. My whole life, no matter what I've done, if I wasn't playing one sport, I was playing another. To not be able to do anything was awful.
   "I ended up buying a ping-pong table and did that one-handed with my other arm in a sling, just to do something. Keeping my mind at ease was the main thing. It was tough for me because I don't sit down very well. That was a big adjustment for me."
   The wait wasn't supposed to be that long. When Woodland took his medical leave from the tour following the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee in late July, he thought he was going in for a simple procedure to reduce the inflammation in his left shoulder that had bothered him for most of his rookie season.
   Instead, Woodland learned he had a torn labrum in his shoulder and the ensuing surgery — which required the removal of bone spurs and bursa and the installation of anchors — put him on a drastically different timetable in the recovery department.
   "I was looking at three weeks recovery and that turned into eight months," Woodland said. "That was a big shock to me. It took me a second to catch my breath, but I knew it had to get taken care of."
   The procedure, performed on Aug. 12 by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., lasted

nearly two hours. Woodland began rehab the next day and rehabs four times a week at a hospital near his home in Orlando, Fla.
   But getting back to golf was a much longer process. It was three months before he could chip and putt. After another month and a half, Woodland began to work his way into hitting wedges and irons. Less than two weeks ago, he finally was cleared to swing the driver.
   As discouraging as the layoff was, it was also encouraging for Woodland. After a whirlwind debut season that included making eight cuts in 18 tour starts and time on the leaderboard at the U.S. Open, Woodland also was finally able to catch his breath.
   "It allowed me to sit down and adjust and evaluate everything I've done and what I needed to work on," Woodland said. "I sat down with my coaches and found my weaknesses, found my strengths so that when we are ready to go, we're working on the right things. That was huge because I felt last year went by so fast, I didn't have time to evaluate things."
   Perhaps the biggest thing Woodland took away from that time was the need for consistency. In his debut season on the tour, Woodland had some serious highs. He birdied his first hole on tour and had a low round of 63 on his way to his best showing of the year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Cancun.
   But he also experienced the other end of the spectrum, the swings never really more

evident than his final tournament where he opened with a 78 and followed with a 67 in missing the cut.
   "Everything needed improvement, but everything needed to be more consistent," Woodland said. "Some days last year, everything was pretty good. But I just needed to be more consistent. We really had to conquer the fundamentals this offseason.
   "This could be a blessing in disguise. With all the short game work I've done, I think it's better now than it's ever been."
   He'll soon get to find out just how far it's come. Woodland plans on returning to competitive golf in late March, making his first appearance with a rehab start at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open on the Nationwide Tour. He'll compete in three other Nationwide events before making his return to the PGA Tour at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio from May 13-16.
   Because of his medical leave, Woodland will have nine PGA starts to keep his tour card. He finished his 2009 season with $121,031 in earnings, which put him 204th on the money list. He needs to get to No. 125, which means making just more than $540,000 in his nine starts to overtake Jimmy Walker's $662,683.
   A victory in any of the nine events would do the trick, even a handful of top 10s. But if there is pressure on Woodland to perform and keep his card, he's not really feeling it.
   "I think I'm in a more comfort zone now than I even was last year," he said. "I was putting pressure on myself to make the top 125. Now I know what I have to do, I know what the money is. I've got nine events and I'll be 100-percent healthy.
   "I wasn't healthy last year and I was trying to force myself to play well one week so I could stop playing. It didn't come. Now I know I'm going to be healthy, I know I've got nine weeks and I know how much money I need to make. For me, I don't think there's pressure, it's just go out and take care of business. I know my game's better."

-- (This article has been published in Kansas Golfer Online with permission of The Topeka Capital-Journal, Feb. 2010)