Top golfers from each state: Kansas golf and Gary Woodland

The only men’s major winner from Kansas Golf, who is also the reigning U.S. Open champion. Meet Mr. Gary Woodland.

The state of Kansas has produced only one men’s major golf champion. But that’s one more than it had produced as of one year ago. When he captured the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last June, Topeka native Gary Woodland became the first Kansas man to win one of golf’s elite trophies. (Wichita native Marilynn Smith won two women’s majors in the 1960s.)

Woodland didn’t have it easy bringing that first men’s championship back to Kansas. His most serious challenge came from two-time defending PGA and U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka.

A Friday 65 enabled Woodland to carry a two-stroke advantage through most of Sunday’s back nine, but when he pushed his tee shot at the hour-glass shaped par 3 17th green far to the right edge of the putting surface, he faced a daunting 80-foot gap between himself and the par he needed to take that margin to the pressure-packed final hole.

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Eschewing a very long and very chancy putt across a swatch of thick fringe, Woodland pulled out a sand wedge and clipped the ball cleanly off the putting surface, his shot stopping within two feet of the cup. He tapped it in and underlined his victory with a closing par to beat Koepka by three strokes.

It marked the culmination of a long athletic and golfing journey for Woodland, born May 21, 1984, in Topeka. Always athletic, he focused on basketball in high school and accepted a basketball scholarship at Washburn University in his home town.

But within a year he left to try golf at the University of Kansas, where he won four tournaments before turning professional in 2007.

Success did not come immediately. He won $2,076 on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour in 2007, and only $3,705 more in 2008.

Qualifying for the PGA Tour in 2010, he made $121,031, but never finished higher than a tie for 47th – at the U.S. Open – and spent most of 2010 back on the Korn Ferry Tour.

His breakthrough came at the 2011 Transitions Championship when he shot 15-under 269 to win. He would win The Reno-Tahoe in 2013 and the Waste Management in 2018 before gaining permanent recognition with his U.S. Open victory.

Gary Woodland won $5.69 million in official money in 2019, running his career total to $27.2 million.

Always known primarily as a bomber, Woodland ranked 12th in driving distance at 312.4 yards when the Tour halted play in March. But his facility with irons should not be overlooked. He ranks 16th this season in strokes gained approaching the green.

Woodland played on the victorious 2019 President’s Cup team, going 1-2-1 in his matches.

He gained an additional element of fame at the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, striking up a relationship with Amy Bockerstette, a collegiate golfer with Down Syndrome.

Woodland invited the girl to play the par 3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale during Wednesday’s practice round, and Bockerstette made par out of a greenside bunker, delighting both Woodland and the large gallery. The PGA Tour reported that its video capturing the moment received 43 million views.