Thai road to recovery? Knock on Wood
Chris Wood hopes pair of International Series starts can boost comeback from anxiety
Chris Wood has his eyes on another Ryder Cup — no really (Courtesy International Series)
Remember Chris Wood? The former 2016 Ryder Cup Englishman who climbed as high as No. 22 in the Official World Golf Ranking is trying to emerge from the abyss of crippling anxiety. He hopes consecutive International Series events in Thailand this week and next can be a big step on his road to recovery following years in the wilderness.
Wood — a strapping 6-foot-6 bomber from Bristol, England — was considered a can’t-miss kid when he finished tied for fifth as an amateur in the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale. He conjured up thoughts of Justin Rose, who turned pro after making his own magical amateur run at the 1998 Open at Birkdale. But unlike Rose, who struggled to gain traction after immediately turning professional, Wood made a smoother transition and started compiling top-10 finishes on the European Tour over the next year before returning to the Open in 2009 at Turnberry and finishing tied for third, just missing the playoff between Stewart Cink and 59-year-old Tom Watson.
That first propelled Wood into the OWGR top 100 and he steadily took off from there, ticking off four European Tour wins at the Thailand Open in 2012, Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in 2013, Lyoness Open in 2015 and flagship BMW PGA Championship in 2016. That last one — where an ace also won him a sports car — helped secure his spot for Europe on the 2016 Ryder Cup.
The 28-year-old Ryder Cup rookie wasn’t featured much in the 17-11 loss to Team USA at Hazeltine, but he performed admirably with a 1-up foursomes win aside Rose over Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker before a 1-down loss in the singles to Dustin Johnson.
But things weren’t as good as they seemed for Wood even at his career peak.
“The reality is I was in a horrendous place technically,” Wood told John Huggan in a 2021 Golf Digest story. “I have pictures of me warming-up at Hazeltine and it’s almost an unplayable golf swing. I say ‘almost’ because I clearly could play back then — I actually performed well that week — but there was no way I was ever going to progress from that point. My clubface was 30-degrees open at the top of my backswing. The only way to get back to square at impact was to ‘flip it’ with my hands.”
Still Wood soldiered on, finishing runner-up three times on the Euro circuit in 2018, including the KLM Open in September which he followed up a week later with a T12 in Portugal. That proved to be his last top-20 finish for nearly three years as the bottom fell out.
“It’s hard because I still believe I’ve even got a Ryder Cup in me. I truly believe that, and I wouldn’t still be putting myself in positions where I feel anxious and exposed unless I felt like it’s going to be worth it.” — Chris Wood
In 2019, Wood’s game hit the shoals. He made only five of 16 cuts and never finished better than 40th. He’d fallen from inside the top 100 to 410th when the pandemic intervened in 2020. But the time he returned to competition nine months later in October, he was outside the top 1,000 and plummeting fast. By year’s end, he was No. 1,610 in the world.
“Mentally, I had had enough. I couldn’t take any more really,” said Wood, who called his downfall in form “humiliating.”
Wood, however, never quit despite neck and back injuries and even after losing his DP World Tour status after 2022. He only played twice on the Challenge Tour in 2023 before shutting it down. He returned to the Challenge Tour in April after more than a year off on a membership extension category.
“I was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and burnout,” Wood said. “I’ve been through a really rubbish time over the last few years where my golf has really impacted me mentally.
“I’ve actually been like that since 2019 but it took maybe four years before I did anything about it. It took literally bottoming out to stop, and I didn’t play at all last year. I took a whole year off, and this year has been about trying to get a card in my hand again.”
Chris Woods won his first pro event in Thailand in 2012 (Courtesy International Series)
The bottom proved to be No. 2,300 in the OWGR after he resumed play this year, and he’s whittled that back to 1,500th. Now the nearly 37-year-old is set to tee it up two consecutive weeks in elevated events on the Asian Tour in Thailand after receiving invites to this week’s Black Mountain Championship and next week’s International Series Thailand at the Thai Country Club in Bangkok.
“I’m very open minded, the important thing is getting a card back in my hand,” Wood said. “I use the word exposure, and these events are upper level, obviously a very high standard. The fields are great. The International Series tournaments themselves are great, the players have spoken very highly of them.”
International Series rankings leader John Catlin inspired Wood to consider approaching the organizers of the LIV Golf-promoted events which are sanctioned by the Asian Tour. He’s glad he took him up on the idea and is enjoying the vibe in Asia while sharing a house with fellow English pro Ollie Fisher.
“Ollie said to me that one of the big things he’s noticed is how friendly everyone is here,” Wood said. “It’s how it should be and how it was (pre-COVID) really, and one of the things he spoke highly about.”
Wood said he received a lot of support from the DP World Tour medical staff and its helpline on his road to recovery, and although it is early days, he is hoping to overcome his issues and once more be a force in the world of golf.
“It’s still very, very hard, but I’m still doing it because I want to, and because I feel like I’ve got so much more to offer,” Wood said. “I know the quality of shots I’ve got and I can hit, so that’s why I’m still in it.
“Ten years ago if you had said to me, you will be in this position mentally, I was so unaware of what those words meant, and it takes going through something like this, or someone very close to you going through it, before you can appreciate what those struggles are actually like.
“It’s hard because I still believe I’ve even got a Ryder Cup in me. I truly believe that, and I wouldn’t still be putting myself in positions where I feel anxious and exposed unless I felt like it’s going to be worth it.”