The 40-year-old golfer underwent a craniotomy in September 2023 after a tumour was discovered earlier that year, and while he was relieved to get back on the green fairly quickly, he suffered a lot of “setbacks”.

He told Today’s Golfer magazine: “I was very thankful to be back playing less than four months on from surgery, but it was like I was a rookie again. I didn’t know what to expect.

“There were days waking up when I didn’t know if I was going to feel good. I didn’t know how I was going to be, going back to places where the year before I’d had multiple seizures. Talk about PTSD. And I had a lot of setbacks physically.”

But Gary is “proud” he still played and thinks he will have a better time this year.

He added: “When I came back, I thought I’d be OK but I wasn’t.

“It was hard, and the things I battled last year through overstimulation were too much.

“But I’m proud of myself for playing. It would have been easy for me to take a medical exemption.

“I had really no chance to play well, but I learned so much.

“If I hadn’t played last year, there’s no way I would be as optimistic about my game as I am now, because I understood what hurt me and what didn’t.”

And the PGA tour star thinks his best days are yet to come.

He said: “I’m as optimistic about my golf game as I’ve been since I won the US Open in 2019. I believe my best golf is ahead of me.

“My speed is back and I’m hitting it as hard as I was 15 years ago.

“I’m getting to a point now where I understand how I need to play, how I need to be successful, so I can show up on golf courses week in, week out and have a chance.”