Masters 2024: Gary Woodland scores hole-in-one just SIX MONTHS after having brain tumor removed as he achieves feat for first time in Par 3 competition

Masters hopeful Gary Woodland sealed one of the most heartwarming comeback stories in many years on Wednesday by scoring his first career hole-in-one.

Woodland, a former U.S. Open champion, only returned to the PGA Tour earlier this year after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor in September.

And just over six months after surgery, the 39-year-old scored the first hole-in-one of his professional career at Augusta National Golf Club.

At the traditional Par 3 competition on the eve of the Masters, which sees players compete in a light-hearted event with family members serving as caddies, Woodland accomplished the feat about 140 yards from the sixth hole.

He made the hole-in-one after his son Jaxson, 6, and twin daughters Maddox and Lennox, 4, joined him on the course in miniature Masters caddy outfits for the event, before his elder come and get the ball for him.

Masters hopeful Gary Woodland sealed one of the most heartwarming comeback stories in many years on Wednesday by scoring his first career hole-in-one.

Just over six months after undergoing brain surgery, the 39-year-old achieved the feat during the Masters curtain-raiser.

And incredibly, on the very next hole, Woodland nearly made two career holes-in-one in the space of a few minutes.

The former world number 12 was about to break out in celebration once again, only to see his tee shot go out at the very last moment.

Woodland began showing symptoms of his brain injury in April 2023, after experiencing tremors and chills while having trouble sleeping.

“It came out of nowhere,” he said in January of symptoms that emerged a few weeks after last year’s Masters. ‘It was a horrible experience. All you wanted was to sleep so you wouldn’t have to think about it, and sleeping was the worst.

“That’s where all the seizures were happening. It was a horrible four, five months.

He added: “As it got worse, loss of appetite, chills, no energy. Things started to deteriorate where I met… I have a performance coach, I work with her.

It started to get so bad that I called my doctor who I’ve been with for 13 years and I was like, man, I need something to calm me down. Almost anxiety.

Woodland’s six-year-old son Jaxson got the ball for him after the hole-in-one special.

His twin daughters Maddox and Lennox, 4, also joined him on the course in miniature Masters caddy outfits.

An MRI eventually revealed the tumor, but he continued to play golf until his operation five months later.

Doctors reportedly drilled a hole in his skull the size of a baseball, before removing a tumor which turned out to be benign.

Woodland returned to the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, where he failed to qualify. Now the Topeka, Kansas, man hopes to build on that at this week’s Masters.

“Obviously it’s been a journey,” he said Tuesday of his recovery. “It’s been a process over the last year. But there’s nowhere I’d rather be right now.