Washburn coach lauds former player Gary Woodland, current Jayhawks

Washburn coach Bob Chipman surveys the action on the floor during one of Washburn's recent trips to Allen Fieldhouse to take on the Jayhawks in exhibition play.

Gary Woodland and wife, Gabby, had a front-row seat across the court from the Washburn bench upon which the PGA tour player once sat. Woodland scored three points in his freshman season in the exhibition against Kansas, before transferring to KU to play golf for Ross Randall.

“I made him dive on the floor once, I made him mad, I think he broke a finger. I’m still kind of regretting that one, but Gary could shoot it,” Washburn coach Bob Chipman said. “I remember one game against Northwest (Missouri State), and Northwest is our big opponent, Gary had five threes the second half. He could shoot it. He was an all-state basketball player, great athlete.”

Suggestion: Turn down the audio before watching the video of Woodland playing for Topeka Heights High or your ears might bleed to death.

Woodland finished 39th on the 2016 PGA Tour money list with $2,392,044.30 and finished 20th in the Fed Ex Cup standings to qualify for all the major tournaments for the 2017 season, which already has started.

Chipman said he will seek his former player’s advice as to which golf clubs he should get to replace the ones Bill Self presented to him as a retirement gift. Chipman, retiring at the end of this, his 38th season as head coach of the Ichabods, ranks third on the Div. II all-time list with 788 victories.

In much the way someone wraps picture of a present that will be delivered in the future, Self threw some old golf clubs in a bag and made it clear they will be replaced by new ones.

“KU is so classy,” Chipman said. “Bill is just incredible. I just really can’t believe how fantastic they are in every way, such a class program. You watch, that team — it was the first game, both teams were pretty ragged, a lot of turnovers — but that KU team is going to be one of the, probably the most fun KU team to watch in recent history before Bill’s done with them. They’re going to be fantastic.”