Wood secured his MENA Tour card<\/a> with a six-shot victory at a 54-hole qualifier at Troia Golf Course in Portugal.<\/p>\nSeveral weeks later the 38-year-old won his first event in nine years, claiming a one-stroke victory at the Rolear Algarve Classic, where he dropped only a single shot across his three rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like a rock-bottom moment\u00a0because that\u2019s been over the last few years,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve got to swallow a pill here and go and play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think how I\u2019ve performed at them has shown\u00a0that I\u2019ve very much done that\u00a0and I\u2019ve gone down with the right attitude\u00a0and put in some good scores. That\u2019s exactly what I was hoping to get from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
LIV\u2019s upcoming qualifying event is a big step up in level and comes with a tantalising prize.<\/p>\n
In total, 80 players will assemble at the Black Diamond Ranch layout in Lecanto, fighting for three contracts on offer for the league\u2019s 2026 season and a $1.5 million purse.<\/p>\n
It was an opportunity too good for Wood to turn down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPut it this way,\u201d he says, \u201cI don\u2019t want to sit around and wait for a phone to ring this year. I want to get out and play, wherever that is. The last year or two I\u2019ve not wanted to push to play because I\u2019ve known I\u2019m not quite in the right spot, but now I feel like I am and that\u2019s all I\u2019m doing. I really want to push to try and play, wherever it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to put together a run of golf really\u00a0so that I\u2019m not going into events\u00a0that could change your season and your career again cold.\u00a0I want to be ready.\u00a0If the phone rings, I want to have played some golf\u00a0so I\u2019m not way behind the eight ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery event\u00a0seems to bring up new levels mentally that it was hard to see myself reaching again.\u00a0I\u2019m really pleased with the progress I\u2019ve made on that side of things and that\u2019s allowed me to play better golf,\u00a0there\u2019s no doubt about that.\u00a0The golf ball is telling you it\u2019s happy\u00a0from the technical work you\u2019re doing,\u00a0but it\u2019s got to go hand in hand with allowing that to happen mentally. So I feel like I\u2019ve made huge strides.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last few years have been so tough that it doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re playing.\u00a0I knew I was going to suffer.\u00a0But now I feel like I\u2019m not going to suffer. My game is getting closer to where I know that wherever I play, I\u2019ll compete. That\u2019s good enough for me at the moment.\u00a0My time will come with wherever it leads me and I am really proud of it.\u00a0But it\u2019s not there yet because I\u2019ve not got any status.\u00a0So that\u2019s what it\u2019s got to come down to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wood understands that claiming one of the three golden LIV tickets will be a tall order. Granted, the field is evidently devoid of players of his pedigree and some US-based players have stayed away given the threat of a one-year suspension by the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n
But several emerging talents and Asian Tour regulars have made an opportunistic trip Stateside, with plenty of competition rounds under their belt. There is extra incentive beyond the LIV contracts too, with the top-10 finishers guaranteed entry into every International Series event in 2026.<\/p>\n
In preparation, Wood spent the festive period braving the golf course in four layers and a bobble hat in brisk England, but also recalibrating his swing with coaches at his local golf facility. The hard work has paid off as he feels has mentally unlocked something within his game.<\/p>\n
Even so, Wood will need to be switched on from the start on Thursday due to LIV\u2019s unforgiving format. After each of the first two rounds of the 72-hole stroke play event, the scores reset, with only the top-20 and ties advancing to the next stage. A 36-hole weekend shootout will then determine the winners of the cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe format this week is brutal,\u201d he admits. \u201cIt\u2019s such a long shot but hopefully I can get a few rounds of competitive golf in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more a case of not going away from events deflated, disappointed and hard on yourself. It\u2019s more like, \u2018What am I trying to get out of this week?\u2019 That gets me towards being in the right frame of mind. Your acceptance levels go up through the roof and that\u2019s sort of where I\u2019m working towards really.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results are massively secondary. But it\u2019s a results game, isn\u2019t it? So obviously I\u2019d love to win the event, but if I can continue in the vein that I have been doing mentally, then I\u2019ll be really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decade on from playing in a Ryder Cup, Chris Wood wants to reunite with his former teammates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-394957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}