\t\t\t\tAlmost a decade after a Ryder Cup appearance, Chris Wood is fighting to revive a career that once promised so much. <\/p>\n
A decade ago, Chris Wood was winning DP World Tour titles and representing Europe in the Ryder Cup. At his peak, he reached 22nd in the Official World Golf Rankings and was regarded as one of Europe\u2019s purest ball-strikers \u2013 a 6ft 6in presence who looked destined for far more than the three wins he\u2019s amassed so far. His 2016 BMW PGA Championship triumph at Wentworth and Ryder Cup debut seemed to cement his position as a towering player on the brink of a towering career.<\/p>\n
Then everything collapsed. Chronic anxiety and burnout triggered a dramatic, near-total loss of form. He lost his DP World Tour card and fell outside the top 2,000 in the world rankings, a previously unthinkable drop for someone once pencilled in as a future European stalwart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been horrendous, to be honest,\u201d he said back in May at the Turkish Airlines Open, where he finally posted his first top-10 on the DP World Tour in seven years. \u201cSince 2019 really \u2013 I just feel like I\u2019ve been going through hell. I\u2019ve been working so hard and it\u2019s been a long old road. I never lost belief in myself \u2013 obviously you have days where it feels harder \u2013 the fire in my belly has always been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
That week felt like a breakthrough. He added a top-20 at the Danish Golf Championship, but too many missed cuts meant he still failed to secure a card for next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who wants me at their event, please pick up the phone because I need a few starts this year!\u201d he said in the summer.<\/p>\n
Now, almost ten years after his Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine, Wood is trying to rebuild his career through Q-School on the revived MENA Tour. The Dubai-based development circuit has bounced between dormancy, rebrands, and relative obscurity in recent years, making it a long way from the grandstands of Wentworth or the cauldron of a Ryder Cup. But it has returned with a 12-event schedule for 2025\/26 and a pathway for players desperate for starts.<\/p>\n
First comes a 54-hole qualifier at Troia Golf Course in Portugal, where Wood is among those battling for playing rights and a share of a modest $7,500 purse from November 20-22. <\/p>\n
If he gets through, he\u2019ll tee it up at PGA Aroeira next week for the opening event. Each regular-season tournament will carry a $100,000 purse, with a February \u201cQ Sprint\u201d offering another $50,000 and an extra route to status.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t Wood\u2019s first attempt at an alternative pathway back to the big-time. He entered LIV Golf Promotions last December but fell short of joining the Saudi-backed league.<\/p>\n
Wood will turn 38 next week, and the new mission is simple: survive MENA Tour Q-School, earn a spot somewhere to play, and keep the comeback alive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost a decade after a Ryder Cup appearance, Chris Wood is fighting to revive a career that once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-277448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}