Even Gary Woodland's own dad roasted him over that topped tee shot at BMW Championship
Tracy Wilcox
First of all, thanks to Gary Woodland. We love to stretch "Pro golfers are just like us!" posts around these parts, but the 2019 U.S. Open champ actually made us weekend hacks feel a lot better about our games for one stunning moment during Sunday's final round of the BMW Championship.
In case you missed it, Woodland was coming off a birdie on No. 8 and just one behind eventual winner Wyndham Clark when he stepped to the tee on No. 9. And, inexplicably, did this:
The topped tee shot into a creek was a shocking moment to everyone who saw it, including Woodland. Not as shocking is that he's taken plenty of ribbing about it since.
"I've hit some good shots this year, and I haven't got any attention—or as much attention as that shot has," Woodland said on Wednesday ahead of the Tour Championship. "That one, it caught me off guard, too, more than anything. I hadn't really missed a shot for eight holes, and then that came out of nowhere. Obviously Sneds was throwing me under the bus last night at the Payne Stewart Award. I got a lot of texts."
But the most brutal of those texts may have come from Gary's dad.
"My dad and I will play in the PNC again this year, the father and son, and when I turned my phone on after the round, it wasn't 'Congrats' or 'Good playing,' it was, 'Hey, get that shot out of the way. I can't afford to have that in the scramble,'" Woodland said.
Talk about some tough love! On the bright side, Woodland recovered to still finish T-3 and earn a spot in the Tour Championship for the first time in seven years. Still, he knows it might be even longer before people stop dragging him for that topped 3-wood.
"I don't think I'll live that one down for a while," Woodland added. "I think that one's going to stick around for a while. I'm proud of myself for how I rebounded after that. It shocked me so much. I think I could have let everything get away. I rebounded and hung in there pretty well and let that one shot go. Because at the end of the day, it was just one shot."
Spoken like a true (tour) pro.