Topeka ? Weekend golfers call it being in jail, surrounded by trees and branches, with no clear path to advancing the ball toward the hole. The only option for the weekend golfer is to go sideways, or even backwards to get back into the fairway. That’s known as taking your medicine.

Well, Gary Woodland is no weekend golfer. He does take his medicine in the form of pain pills to quiet the right wrist injury he suffered in the Big 12 tournament. But he doesn’t go sideways.

Just as a pool shark sees shots the guy who gets in bar fights for jumping quarters doesn’t know exist, Woodland makes shots most don’t even see. He’s far more than a masher. He’s a thinker. A : very : deliberate : thinker.

Late in a wicked hot day in which he played 34 holes of golf against an opponent who knew how to hang around, Woodland found his ball near the trunk of a fat tree. And then there was the matter of the other trees not too far ahead of him. He saw a tiny opening, yet to follow that tunnel of air would mean sending his ball into more trouble off to the left of the elevated No. 9 green at Topeka Country Club. Not a problem, he opened the face of the club to cut the ball and make it go right.

The pin was a Woodland 9-iron away, yet he needed even more loft than that club would give him to get over the tree he needed to clear. Not to worry. Woodland never truly is between clubs. If he doesn’t have enough distance, he just gives the necessary club a little extra juice and the ball gets there. It got there, and two putts later, Woodland had his par to remain 3-up on Wes Stonestreet on their 32nd hole of the day.

After Woodland executed the difficult shot precisely as he thought it out, Kansas Golf Association president Kim Richey smiled from his golf cart and summed it up in one word: “Talent.”

Woodland would wrap up his second Kansas Amateur title in three years a couple of holes later. Looking back on the shot on No. 14, Woodland revealed a slice of his personality.

“Guys are going to be making birdies out here in this, so you can’t afford to play it safe,” Woodland said. “You have to stay aggressive.”

His extraordinary length off the tee coupled with that aggressive nature gives Woodland such a high ceiling and makes him even better suited for match play than stroke play at this stage.

That high ceiling, on any given shot, not just any given hole or day, is what makes it far too early to count out Woodland for a spot on the Walker Cup team, the amateur version of the Ryder Cup.

He still has time to get the attention of those selecting the 10-man Walker Cup team next month.

He’s shuffling off to Buffalo on a flight today to compete in the Porter Cup.

“I was going to fly tonight, but I moved it back a day to celebrate this,” said Woodland, who won the match in front of a gallery of about 125.

After Buffalo, he has two more amateur tournaments, one in Nebraska, the other in Michigan. Then, if he’s not selected for the Walker Cup, he’ll turn pro, showing up at Monday qualifiers, and then after the season going to Q school.

Woodland, who came to the KU golf team via the Washburn University basketball squad, won’t forget his Kansas roots if he hits it big. Bank on it.