Gary Woodland’s brave admission, Tiger Woods’ latest arrest and Bryson DeChambeau goes on a safari

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are still brimming from a victory on Sunday that brought the entire country together. Seriously, can you believe UConn beat Duke like that? Apologies to all the Dukies out there, especially my hole-in-one buddy Carlos Boozer, but that was an all-time sports moment. Oh, and then there was Gary Woodland winning right before to cap his own incredible comeback. And sports fans can all agree on how special that was. So let’s talk more about that and everything else going on in golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Gary Woodland: The golf world badly needed a feel-good story and, boy, did this guy deliver. Woodland returned to the PGA Tour winner’s circle for the first time in nearly seven years by claiming the Texas Children’s Houston Open, but there was so much more to it.

As most golf fans know, the 2019 U.S. Open champ underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2023. And as golf fans just found out earlier this month, he’s been battling PTSD since going through that ordeal. What does that entail? Just listen to him describe one day during this week in which he was “a wreck” for 10 holes and “bawled his eyes out.”

And yet Woodland was able to overcome that as well as the pressure of trying to close out an event on the PGA Tour where the past four 54-hole leaders had lost to win a fifth career title by five shots. Amazing. And another reminder to all of us that talking about your problems rather than keeping them inside can really help. In addition to his mental fortitude, I’m also buying his clubhead speed. Woodland averaged a tick less than 130(!) mph for the week to lead the field, even reaching 196(!) mph ball speed on one drive during the final round.

Not too shabby for a guy who turns 42 in a couple months.

Alex Fitzpatrick: This was also a great story as the younger brother of Matt Fitzpatrick claimed his first DP World Tour title at the Hero Indian Open. And he did it in spectacular fashion by birdieing eight of his final 15 holes at the difficult Gary Player layout. (Yes, he doubled the final hole, but it didn’t matter):

Making the victory even more special was the fact that Alex won just a week after Matt won on the PGA Tour. And with his win wrapping up Sunday morning, Fitzpatrick had plenty of time to watch basketball the rest of the day. And as a fellow Demon Deacon, I assure you Alex wasn’t broken up about Duke losing in crushing fashion.

Hyo Joo Kim: For a second consecutive week, the South Korean held off Nelly Korda to win, this time successfully defending her title at the Ford Championship. The 30-year-old shot a pair of 61s to claim her ninth career LPGA title and move to No. 3 in the world ranking, one spot behind Korda.

“I feel like I had a lot to learn from her,” Kim said after of her friend Korda. “I know it was a competition, but playing with her, there was just so much to learn. So it was just a great week.” Um, we’re guessing Korda learned a thing or two from Kim as well.

WE’RE SELLING

Tiger Woods: What a sad situation. And it could have been so, so much worse. The 15-time major champ is now up to four vehicular incidents (that we know of) and two arrests. In the span of a few hours we went from wondering if he’d play in the Masters to wondering if he’ll face jail time for his latest offense.

Woods’ body has been through so much, and I hope he gets the help he needs, but there’s just no excuse for this to keep happening. And by now you’ve all heard everyone’s take on this so there’s no use in me going on. But I’ll leave you with Joel Beall’s column, because I thought it was the best reaction.

My golf bets: OK, back to some lighter stuff … Not only do my golf bets never win, lately they never even seem to make it out of the first round healthy. I’m on quite a run betting on guys who wind up WDing, from Jake Knapp at Bay Hill to Collin Morikawa at the Players to Pierceson Coody this past week at the Houston Open.

Just an insanely bad run. My apologies in advance to any golfers I wind up betting on this week.

Eating grass: Sahith Theegala told a wild story to Golfweek about his first trip to Augusta National a few years back. "I went with my college golf team. We had played in a tournament at Augusta and I think it was everyone's first time. We were adamant we get there as soon as the gates opened and told coach we were staying until we literally got kicked out of the place. We had a stack of cups from all the sweet teas we had. This was probably illegal but I remember picking a blade of grass and I ate it because I thought it would give me some magical Masters powers." OK then.

I just hope Sahith doesn’t get in trouble with the green jackets! Our Mike Stachura took some water from Rae’s Creek to test for artificial coloring (yes, it contained food dye) nearly 30 years ago … and he’s never been back.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour completes its Texas two-step at the Valero Texas Open, AKA Glory’s Last Chance to make it into the Masters. Of course, there are also plenty of golfers in the field who have already secured their Masters invites. Good for them, but it’s always cooler when someone gets in at the last minute. Speaking of Augusta National, this week is also the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. And there’s the Aramco Championship in Las Vegas on the LPGA Tour, so it’s still a busy week even with LIV, the PGA Tour Champions and, shockingly, the DP World Tour taking the week off.

Random tournament fact: A left-handed golfer has won the Valero the past two years (Brian Harman last year and Akshay Bhatia in 2024). So maybe this is actually a great place to practice for Augusta National after all.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tommy Fleetwood will win the Valero Texas Open: 14-to-1 odds (Favorite)

—Tommy Fleetwood will WD from the Valero if I bet on him: 10-to-1 odds

—Tommy Fleetwood will NOT win the Valero if I bet on him: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

I still can't believe Jordan Spieth lost that Masters. And I still can't believe Duke lost that game on Sunday.

PHOTO(S) OF THE WEEK

Bryson DeChambeau went on a safari—and it looked like he really enjoyed it:

Hey, when in Rome South Africa, right? And is it possible this was a response to Rory McIlroy a couple weeks ago saying, “I’m sure Jon doesn’t want to go to South Africa next week for a LIV event, but he’s going there.” Hmm.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (GAMESMANSHIP DIVISION)

Speaking of the Rory-Bryson rivalry, how about this clip from Rory’s new documentary describing a tense scene between the two on the ninth green during the Masters final round last year?

Spicy! Well, spicy for golf, that is.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (SPORTSMANSHIP DIVISION)

Loved seeing Min Woo Lee pump up the crowd for Gary Woodland as he approached the final green:

The third player in the group, Nicolai Hojgaard, also stayed back to give Gary the spotlight. Class moves all around.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (HUSBAND-WIFE DIVISION)

Congrats again to Gary and Gabby Woodland:

And this FaceTime with their kids was great:

Kids sure do love trophies.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (GRANDPARENTS-GRANDKIDS DIVISION)

Totes adorbs.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

There wasn’t much happening that I saw, so here’s my story from the latest issue of Golf Digest on Jeff McNeil, the two-time MLB All-Star who had PGA Tour dreams as a high school senior:

And as a plus-2.8 handicap, he has (semi-legit) PGA Tour Champions dreams when his MLB career is over.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We play an individual sport, but I wasn’t alone today.” —Gary Woodland. Well said, Gary.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Stewart Cink on winning the Hoag Classic for his third win in his last five PGA Tour Champions starts. Not even that young whippersnapper Zach Johnson could track Cink down. … UBER announced a golf option for four golfers and their clubs to get a ride to the course. Great idea. Golf is so hot right now. … And, finally, special shout-out to my Baloo and Bagheera for doing a great job in their production of “The Jungle Book” (Shout-out to Random Farms Kids' Theater as well):

Like Mr. Fitzpatrick on Sunday, I was one proud dad!

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Has a green jacket winner ever eaten Augusta National grass?

Will a current celebrity golfer make it on the senior tour?

How the heck did Duke lose that game?