Video: Gary Woodland Makes Masters Par 3 Contest Ace 6 Months After Brain Surgery

Welcome back, Gary Woodland.

Woodland drew a well-deserved roar from the crowd during Wednesday's Masters Par 3 contest at Augusta National Golf Club with a hole-in-one. It was all the more notable because he is just six months removed from undergoing brain surgery to remove a lesion:

The surgery was a craniotomy on Sept. 18. Jack Bantock of CNN noted in January the 39-year-old dealt with symptoms and uncertainty well before the procedure.

He was jolted awake the night before the final round of the Mexico Open in April 2023 and also suffered a loss of appetite, lack of energy and chills. He said he consistently "thought everything was going to kill me" and was "fear-driven every day, mostly around death."

A specialist revealed the partial seizures and fear were caused by the lesion pushing on the area of his brain that controls anxiety and fear.

Woodland still played 10 events while on medication and dealing with significant fatigue. He made the cut in eight of the 10 tournaments he appeared in and finished in a tie for 14th at the Wells Fargo Championship. He eventually underwent the surgery, which came with the risk of lost vision and paralysis on his left side.

Fortunately, those risks did not become a reality as doctors removed some of the lesion, and he has now returned to the course.

"The support from the Tour, from people outside the golf world, has been tremendous for me and my family," Woodland said.

"When I woke up and realized I was OK, I was filled with thankfulness and love. That replaced the fear. It was very emotional because I had gone four-and-a-half months of every day really thinking I was going to die."

Now Woodland will play in the 2024 Masters, which begins Thursday.

He has participated in the famed event 10 times in the past with mixed results with five made cuts and five missed cuts. Yet his best result came just last year when he finished in a tie for 14th place.

And if Wednesday's hole-in-one was any indication, Woodland is ready to finish even higher on the leaderboard this year.