Our world is full of sports and with this comes celebration and dismay. The last shot by University of Connecticut guard, Braylon Mullins, a mere Freshman, in the hard-fought game with Duke for the Final Four turned the tide with less than 2 seconds remaining. His teammates were all over him. That is because it is a team sport.

The rest of the team supports the individual. This is not necessarily the same support when the event involves one-on-one competitions like tennis, track, or golf. An example was brought to my family when my grandson was nationally ranked as a tennis player when he was but 12. After his freshman year in high school, and after making it to the state finals, he decided to give up tennis and play soccer. His reason was quite clear. He wanted a team sport. He had no teammates pulling for him in tennis

My family has been involved in golf since the late 1920s. My father won the men’s Cook County Open as a 16-year-old and went on to a scholarship at Northwestern, with him becoming the golf team captain. While it was an individual sport, the team event was a collection of the scores of the other team golfers.

Another such sport is track and field, be it a race or a field event. While the team does accumulate points, each participant, except a relay team, competes alone. This is so unlike football, soccer, basketball, or baseball. The golfer, pole vaulter, or tennis player stands alone.

This last weekend, another example of an individual achieving a monumental win was accomplished at the Houston Open of the PGA Tour. The name Gary Woodland was not as well-known as a Nickaus, Palmer, Scheffler, McIlroy, or similar continual winners in the game of professional golf. There was a reason for that. Since winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2019, Woodland had disappeared from the winner’s circle for obvious reasons.

In 2023, the 41-year-old had surgery to remove a brain lesion. As a follow-up condition, Woodland developed post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, as a side effect. He finally related this latter health problem a few weeks ago at The Players Championship. The release of this private concern seemed to lighten him. Hiding this medical problem had been an additional weight to his game

Woodland tried to reenter this most difficult sport. The challenge was that each player depended only on himself, and perhaps a bit on his caddie. He also reunited with former coach Randy Smith. Smith challenged him every day even telling him he needed to start swinging harder, playing harder, and that he had become “soft”. After that emotional interview 20 days ago, Woodland shared that he felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off his shoulders.

It was off to the Houston Open with his faithful caddie, Brennan Little, flanking him. The first couple of months this year on tour did not go well, and he found himself in a dark place. A couple of weeks off with some determination, he had just finished playing a prior tournament where he had finished a distant 14th. He felt that he had played better than that but believed he didn’t have that needed confidence. He admitted that he entered this last tournament with the most confidence that he had ever felt since the surgery and rehab.

Each day went by with good golf, and he was right near the top of the leaderboard through the early rounds. On Sunday he began his round with a mere one-shot lead. But it was a lead, and he felt the most confidence he had in the last few years

By the time he made the turn after nine holes, he had amassed a six-shot lead over fellow competitors and playing partners Nicolai Hojgaard and Min Woo Lee. He did this by getting birdies on four of the last five holes of that nine. On the back nine, he led by as many as seven shots. Pressure was building, and his lead fell to four after 17 holes. But he found that strength on the final hole and increased his win to five shots. Even better, that win got him an entry into the Masters in two weeks at Augusta.

Amazingly, Woodland was not alone in his victory on the golf course with his own emotions. On the walk down the 18th fairway, Lee and Hojgaard trailed Woodland, both raising their arms and encouraging the fans to applaud this man for his courage and dedication to taking control over his own life. This despite his beating both. Here was an act of acknowledgement not often shared in the sports are all single participants.

Woodland acknowledged that he could never have overcome his lack of confidence without his wife, his counselor, his caddie, and his golf coach, Randy Smith, who did much more than work on his golf game.

Singular sports have their ups and downs. My grandson went on to love soccer and later volleyball and even went back to tennis just for the fun. Congratulations to Gary Woodland. I will be pulling for him as I watch the Masters in a week.

· Dennis Marek can be contacted at llamalaw23@gmail.com.