ST. LOUIS – Gary Woodland was born in Topeka, Kan., and went to school in Lawrence, Kan., which makes this week’s PGA Championship as close to a home game as he’s probably ever going to have.
“By far. It’s nice. They were nice enough to give me a whole bunch of extra tickets,” Woodland said. “I’ve got friends and family coming, which is awesome.”
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Woodland estimated he has about 50 friends and family coming in for this week’s championship at Bellerive, which is about a three-hour drive from Lawrence.
“It was hard growing up because there was nothing close,” said Woodland, who didn’t play Bellerive in college or junior golf but made a scouting trip to the course about a month ago. “I never went to a golf tournament. My first Tour event I ever went to was the first one I played at the [2009] Sony Open. The mid-west is starving for it. Kansas City would be an awesome fit if they could ever get it done.”
