A former college basketball player is leading the U.S. Open. Seriously.
If you’re at least a casual golf fan, you know Gary Woodland. What you might not know? His winding path to leading the U.S. Open involves deep three-point range, Dana Altman, and an exhibition game at Kansas.
Brooks Koepka might get all the buzz for his athleticism and honest desire that he’d play baseball over golf, but it’s actually a different name on this U.S. Open leaderboard that had the most successful career in another sport.
You’d be forgiven if “Steph Curry lite” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you look at or think about Gary Woodland. A three-time winner on Tour and a consistent top-50 player for the past handful of seasons, he’s a known quantity — the type of fringe household name that at least every golf fan knows. He shows up on major leaderboards. He’s long, he’s an athlete, he hits it forever. It wouldn’t be a shock if you were told the burly, long-hitter used to be a great athlete in another sport, but you might first guess he were a linebacker, first baseman, something like that.
You probably wouldn’t go for skinny point guard with tight handles and unlimited range.
But, yes, that’s true. Once upon a time, the now 35-year-old stocky Woodland was a local point guard phenom in Topeka, Kansas that got told by Creighton’s Dana Altman that he was too dang small to play major Division I college basketball. And the chain of events that led to him teeing off with a two-shot lead at the U.S. Open this afternoon involve a self-reckoning at the hands of Bill Self, Wayne Simien, and Kansas basketball.
Fifteen-some years ago, Gary Woodland was a three-sport athlete and star at Shawnee Heights High in Topeka, Kansas — but he was best known 6-1 skinny, all-state point guard that started 75 games and led his team deep in the state basketball tournament three times. Described as a shooter that had the green light the second he crossed half court, Woodland’s slight frame prevented the larger schools from offering scholarships, and he headed to hometown, Division II powerhouse Washburn University with basketball as his top priority.
It’s a fascinating story, and this ESPN piece from March has all the details, including this nugget where Creighton’s Dana Altman (now at Oregon) wasn’t interested in Woodland due to his frame — setting off the first kicker in the series of events that led to his pro golf career.
Cox tried to help Woodland. He reached out to some of his college contacts, including Dana Altman, then at Creighton, and pitched the 6-foot-1 Woodland as a guard who could “shoot the lights out.” Cox said the response was standard: “Who can he guard? How’s he going to be on defense?” But Cox didn’t have a good answer. If Woodland was coming out of high school today, Cox believes, with the premium that colleges put on shooters, Woodland would have received more and better offers.
In his first season at Washburn, Woodland was a backup point guard. His first ever game? An exhibition showdown with his beloved Kansas Jayhawks, that would become a reality check for the now-U.S. Open leader.
“I realized I was good in the state but these guys on a national level were a little different,” Woodland told ESPN in March. “I wasn’t quick enough and that was a big deal. I could shoot the heck out of it. I could see. I could handle the basketball but I wasn’t quick enough to move defensively.”
”Offensively, I was fine. I could get around, I could do stuff, but defensively I wasn’t quick enough. I couldn’t keep up. That was the biggest thing. And that was at the Division II level. You talk about Division I level. Our first game was at KU and I learned quickly I needed to find something else.”
Woodland averaged around 6 points a game his freshman season, transferred to his beloved KU to take a roster spot on the golf team that had been held open for him. Now, years later, he’s leading the U.S. Open — and he’s probably made more money in professional sports than any of those players on the Kansas roster at the time.
Weird world, man.