The former college hoops player-turned-golfer shined on Sunday in beating Brooks Koepka, as did the U.S. Open itself

Playing favorites: Woodland hits 3 big shots for the ages and a US Open win

Viktor Hovland, the 2018 U.S. Amateur champion at Pebble Beach, earned low-amateur honors in the 2019 U.S. Open at the same venue.

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Gary Woodland captures the 2019 U.S. Open at 13-under par. This is the first major championship for the 35-year old Kansas native.

Column: You got this! A player with Down syndrome and the US Open champion she helped

Column: You got this! A player with Down Syndrome and the Open champion she helped

Harry HowBefore Gary Woodland began to really take golf seriously, which was right in the middle of his junior year of high school, we was shooting the lights out on the basketball team. Woodland was so good that he was offered scholarships from a handful of smaller Division I and Division II schools. The dream was to play at the University of Kansas, and by dream we mean pipe dream. As talented as he was, playing for such a storied program was out of the question for the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Woodland.
RELATED: One of Gary Woodland's biggest cheerleaders is a pretty famous basketball coach
But Woodland still wanted to give hoops a try, so he went to Washburn University, a D-II school in his hometown of Topeka, Kansas, to play both basketball and golf. Woodland skipped fall golf to focus on basketball, playing out his freshman season as a backup shooting guard. He averaged six points per game and knocked down 38 of his 120 three-point attempts on the year, but he knew he would never..

To understand why Gary Woodland’s win at Pebble Beach was so popular among his fellow tour pros, you can watch Woodland in the viral video of Special Olympics golfer Amy Bockerstette making par at TPC Scottsdale’s par-3 16th hole in January.
Woodland was the defending champion at the Waste Management Phoenix Open who helped shepherd Bockerstette, a college golfer with Down syndrome, through her incredible up-and-down out of the sand at one of golf’s most renowned holes. By every account, Woodland's especially, the star of the show was the 20-year-old Bockersette. But it’s also apparent how much Woodland relished being a part of it. “Something I’ll never forget,” Woodland said in January.
Five months later, Bockerstette and Woodland still feel a connection to one another. Asked about the experience earlier this week, the golfer said it stood as his all-time favorite moment in the game. And lest you thought Bockerstette was indifferent about the final round of the U.S. Open, the PGA..