Saluting Gary and Butch

What a Masters that was.

Rory McIlroy’s Friday round of 65 was among the best any of us will witness. Six birdies in seven holes on the back nine, one of them (on the 17th) rescued by a chip shot he could attempt 500 times more and potentially not make again, all to finish with a six-shot lead: a record margin after the opening two days of competition at Augusta. And in holding his nerve until Sunday evening to win again, Rory joins Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as one of only four players to claim back-to-back green jackets…which is quite a club to belong to.

If it was the first Masters you’ve watched, I doubt it will be your last, but anyhow: so far, so predictable from this self-confessed (see earlier blogs) Rory fan. I’m actually here to call out another highlight from this year’s tournament: a conversation around mental health being embraced, and advanced, in a way that to me felt truly enlightened.

The two participants, Gary Woodland and Butch Harmon, may need some introduction to the newer golfers among you.

Harmon is a former professional player, the most renowned swing coach of the modern era, and a longstanding commentator and pundit. He’s also a Vietnam combat veteran, and we’ll get to that in a bit.

Woodland is a current PGA Tour pro and winner of the 2019 US Open, who in September 2023 underwent surgery to remove part of a tumour that had formed near his amygdala: the part of the brain which controls emotions, in particular fear and anxiety.

Strong, unprompted feelings of dread were among the symptoms that first led Woodland to seek medical advice in April of that year, and receiving the MRI scan a month later that revealed his diagnosis. “Everything was fear”, he explained to Netflix in season 3 of their behind-the-scenes docu-series Full Swing. “Walking down the street – I was going to die, someone was going to hit me – get on an airplane and the overhead bin was going to fall open and kill me”.

Woodland returned to competitive play just four months after his operation, still taking medication that made him “feel worse than (I did) pre-surgery”, but his physical recovery steadily continued and by March 29th, 2026 he was a winner once more, at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. As is often the case however, his mental recovery has been a little more complex.

On March 9th – just a couple of weeks before his win in Houston, which made that feat even more remarkable – Woodland revealed in an emotional interview with The Golf Channel that he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his surgery. He described experiencing intense hypervigilance – a state of high alert for sights, sounds, smells, or behaviours in others that indicate potential threat – which frequently induces exhausting levels of anxiety. During a round in California,

“A walking scorer startled me, got close to me from behind. I pulled my caddie and said, ‘You can’t let anybody get behind me.’ Next thing you know, I couldn’t remember what I was doing. My eyesight started to get blurry (…) When I got done, I got in my car and got out of there. There are days when it’s tough – crying in the scoring trailer, running to my car just to hide it. I don’t want to live that way anymore.”

The decision not to battle PTSD in private anymore involved a conversation with the PGA, who quickly put security protocols in place to make him feel more protected from potential threats.

Time and again, we read and hear that the key to tackling mental health challenges is opening up about them to others, to an extent where you might think I’m using a new story here just to make a very old point. Only here is Woodland saying as much himself, in an interview with the BBC before The Masters began.

Once he shared his burden, people were able to begin helping him reduce it.

So where does Butch Harmon fit in?

On day two at Augusta, the producers of CBS’s TV broadcast decided to include Woodland in their featured coverage for a while, and the Sky commentary team’s attention inevitably turned to his recent decision to make his PTSD diagnosis public.

After praising Woodland’s bravery in choosing to do so, Harmon revealed he too has PTSD as a result of his experiences in Vietnam, and referred to their struggle with the condition in equal terms. There was no comparative analysis or equivalence to his comments, no suggestion their afflictions were in any way different by having arisen in different circumstances. He was simply saying I have PTSD, you have PTSD: I see and hear you. A model response from a fellow sufferer and the reason why, despite Rory’s incredible victory, it’s perhaps Gary and Butch who will linger longest in my memories of the 2026 Masters.