Top tweets show Woodland’s reach after first career major title

By Matt Tait     Jun 17, 2019
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Gary Woodland poses with the trophy after winning the U.S. Open Championship golf tournament Sunday, June 16, 2019, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

If you’ve got something you’re looking forward to at the end of the month and want to kill time until it gets here, just hop on Twitter, type the name Gary Woodland — or his handle @GaryWoodland — into the search field and let your reading, scrolling and smiling take care of the rest.

In the wake of Woodland’s magnificent showing this weekend at Pebble Beach, [where he became the winner of the 119th U.S. Open and the first KU golfer to win a major title,][1] Twitter was full of literally thousands of messages about the Jayhawk’s big weekend.

From messages directly to Woodland from adoring fans to promotions from various courses and companies, messages of congratulations from all over the world and highlights of his final round, that simple search has everything you need to relive what can only be described as one of the biggest moments in the history of Kansas golf.

As I scrolled through hundreds of tweets and read all kinds of recaps of [Woodland’s big day,][2] I couldn’t help but be tickled by some of the more memorable tweets that came across my screen.

I surely missed some good ones and there are probably still more to come in the next few hours, days, weeks, months and years.

But these, at least for my money, were 10 of the coolest tweets I saw that were posted in the aftermath of Woodland’s U.S. Open victory.

Put your politics aside for a second on this one and take a minute to digest the fact that the President of the United States of America made sure to tip his cap to Woodland for winning what amounts to golf’s national title.

I don’t care who you voted for or how you feel, that’s a pretty cool moment and is just another way of illustrating just how big of a deal Woodland’s victory really was.

Here’s one for the other side of the aisle. New Kansas governor Laura Kelly, who handles her business of running the Sunflower State in Woodland’s hometown, took time out of her busy day to honor Woodland’s accomplishment, as well.

If you don’t know the story about Gary Woodland and his good friend Amy Bockerstette, this might not make a ton of sense.

But do yourself a favor and watch this video and then you’ll understand not only why this tweet from Amy was so cool but also why so many people are such big fans of Woodland.

This one made the rounds on KU Twitter a lot last night and it deserves to be included in this recap because it cuts to the core of what Woodland is all about.

More than just a great golfer and a great athlete, Woodland is a great person. He’s a friend to everyone, walks with genuine kindness and compassion in his heart and is proud of where he came from and does everything he can to support KU, Kansas, Topeka and those he loves.

Van Pelt nailed it here and the rest of the world is starting to figure it out, too.

That’s what’s so cool about the platform that comes to those who win at this level. Woodland now has an opportunity to show these traits to the entire world and there’s little doubt that he’ll take full advantage of it.

I included this one because it’s such a great graphic that perfectly captures the entirety of Woodland’s personality.

Steady, stoic, confident, explosive. It’s all there. And it’s an image that will be seen and saved by thousands of Kansans and Woodland fans for years to come.

There were literally dozens of congratulatory messages from Woodland’s fellow PGA Tour competitors, but this one jumped out to me the most because Rose had a front row seat for all of it and could not have been more gracious in defeat.

Remember, it was Rose who led after Round 1 and Rose who closed Round 3 with a birdie to pull within one shot of Woodland and the lead heading into the final round.

Sure, he has won a major before, but these guys never get tired of chasing them and there’s little doubt that Rose was incredibly disappointed by how his Sunday round played out.

To be able to let that go and recognize what a cool moment it was for the guy who beat you is all class.

I also love this one because Rose chose to include the fist bump he gave Woodland after his magnificent chip on 17 that pretty much wrapped up the championship.

I absolutely love this one. The Shawnee Heights High School Twitter account retweeted quite a few Woodland tweets on Sunday, but this one from the Kansas State High School Activities Association actually included a picture of Woodland in his Shawnee Heights hoops uniform.

He’s No. 23 on the bottom left, in case you can’t find him.

And this tweet, better than any of these others, fully captures just how incredible Woodland’s story — from start to finish — truly is [and why it means so much to so many people in the state of Kansas.][3]

Figured we might as well mix one in for the tens of thousands of KU basketball fans who frequent this site.

Not only is this tweet one of those blast-from-the-past moments, but it also shows just how legit Woodland was as a basketball player and what type of athlete he was when this whole thing began.

He can still hit jumpers with the best of them. He’s just much, much better at hitting a golf ball these days.

I liked this one because of the picturesque scene it captured, but also because it’s from a freakin’ blimp.

And by blimp, we’re talking one of the most legendary things in all of sports. That thing has flown over hundreds, if not thousands, of the biggest sporting events known to man.

It’s been immortalized in an Ice Cube song. And now there it is tweeting a message of congrats to Woodland.

The billions of Woodland-inspired tweets — in more than half a dozen different languages — were all cool. And I hope Woodland has time to sit down and sift through every last one of them. But how cool is this one?

It seemed only fitting to end this thing with a quick message from the champ himself.

This short video was posted by @WilsonGolf one of Woodland’s many, incredibly pumped and proud sponsors.

[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2019/jun/16/woodland-wins/
[2]:

[3]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2019/jun/16/gary-woodlands-first-major-title-came-wi/

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.