Former KU standouts Gary Woodland, Matt Gogel inducted into Kansas Golf Hall of Fame
Former University of Kansas golfers Gary Woodland and Matt Gogel were inducted into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame on Monday night in a ceremony at the Overland Park Marriott Hotel.
The two KU graduates as well as Derby resident Woody Austin were enshrined by Kansas Golf Foundation officials at the conclusion of a banquet.
Woodland, a 40-year-old current PGA Tour player and 2019 U.S. Open champion, competed at KU from 2004-07. Gogel, a 53-year-old former PGA Tour player and current PGA Champions Tour player, was on the KU golf team from 1991-94.
Woodland is a four-time winner on the PGA Tour and one-time winner on the European Tour. The Topeka native earned all-Big 12 honors in 2006 and 2007. He is second in KU history with 26 rounds in the 60s and is second in career collegiate wins with four.
Woodland has participated in 363 PGA Tour events. He has 54 top-10 finishes and 29 top-5 finishes to go with his four wins. Woodland placed sixth in the PGA Championship in 2018 to go with his U.S. Open crown in 2019. He was part of the 2019 U.S. President’s Cup team.
The 2002 Shawnee Heights High School graduate helped lead the T-Birds to a pair of Class 5A state basketball championships. He played basketball at a freshman at Washburn University before transferring to KU to concentrate on golf. Woodland is a member of the Shawnee County Sports Hall of Fame.
Gogel, 53, who hails from Denver, attended high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now lives in Mission Hills. He was an All-America collegiate golfer in 1993. He was a three-time all-Big Eight Tournament selection. He took medalist honors at the 1991 Big Eight tourney.
Gogel holds the 54-hole individual record in an NCAA Championship with a score of 223 in 1993. He won one PGA Tour event and currently competes on the PGA Tour Champions Tour.
Early in his career, Gogel became the first player in Nike Tour history to win an event in four consecutive years.
In 2007, Gogel joined the Golf Channel as an on-course reporter. Gogel joined the PGA Champions Tour in 2021.
Gogel played a key role in the renovation of the Jayhawk Club, the home golf course and practice facility for the KU men’s and women’s golf programs.
KU’s golf practice facility complex is now named the Gary Woodland Golf Complex.
Austin, 60, won four PGA Tour events while competing in 545 events. The 1995 PGA Tour rookie of the year was runner-up in four tourneys and placed third in three tourneys. He was born in Tampa, Florida, and attended the University of Miami. Austin has four PGA Champions Tour victories.
The Kansas Golf Hall of Fame was founded in 1991. Past inductees include Jim Colbert, Grier Jones, Bryan Norton, Ross Randall, Deb Richard, Marilynn Smith, Tom Watson and Jerry Waugh.
