Masters apprentice

By Chris Wood Last updated: 18th March 2010

Hello and welcome to my new column.

I'll be giving Golf365.com and Skysports.com readers a regular insight into life on tour and providing an inside track on the professional game.

The European Tour is in Morocco this week, but I'm not competing, I'm off to America on Monday where I'll start preparations for my first-ever appearance at The Masters.

I can't wait for it, it's come round so quickly it's just three or four weeks away. I can almost picture it now, despite never having been before. It's one of those places that everyone has seen on telly and, as it's the only major that's in the same place, you get quite familiar with it and you almost feel like you know the course before you've even been there.

It promises to be an amazing week and I've got a few friends and family along for the ride. My parents are coming and my coach, we've got a house for the week. There's also some people from my golf club heading out as well as my girlfriend's Dad - it's his 50th birthday, so not a bad present!

Obviously I'd like to do very well, but I think it will be a case of trying to get used to the greens and learning where and where not to miss shots. I've been told there are some places there where, if you miss the green, it's absolutely 100 percent certain that you cannot get up-and-down. If you hit it there you're absolutely dead!

It's about getting to know the course as well as I can really, but as long as I get my preparation spot on I should have a half decent chance of doing alright.

I'm flying out on Monday for a week's practice in Orlando first, then going to Augusta for two days before heading off to compete in the Houston Open. Then it's back to Augusta for the Masters, so in total I'll be in America for three weeks.

Hopefully I'll get a couple of practice rounds in at Augusta with the guys that have been there a lot like Lee Westwood. I'm hoping to play the par-three tournament with a few of the guys I know and get to pick their brains on the course. Someone like Westwood's been there ten or 15 times so it would be great to team up with him for a practice round and get his take on it.

I played against Lee at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship last month when he beat me in the first round. It was always going to be a tough game, but I didn't think either of us played or scored our best, there were no fireworks. I felt like if I'd been on my game I could have beaten him, but I wasn't quite firing. It was a missed opportunity to knock out a great player and a big seed and disappointing I didn't take it.

When you watch Lee at the moment he seems to be striking it so well all the time, but he certainly wasn't playing his best that day. He still played solidly, but it was a missed opportunity to sneak one past him and that doesn't happen too often so I was left kicking myself.

But I always seem to start the year fairly slowly. I had a reasonable Desert Swing with three top-20 finishes. It was solid, but there was nothing special going on. However, once The Masters comes round it feels like there are a lot more tournaments and I start to get into the swing of it - I did that last year. When the spring comes round I feel like I kick into gear.

I'm always working on stuff with my coach, but we're really starting to put the emphasis on the short game and putting at the moment because that's what's been letting me down a little bit. I've just not been scoring quite as well as I've been playing so I've been working hard on the pitching and putting.

To be fair we've been playing on grainy greens out in the desert and in Malaysia and South Africa so it's obviously a bit different to what I'm used to. I haven't been putting that well, but it's also to do with the greens I've been playing on.

Finally I couldn't sign off this week without a mention about the return of Tiger Woods. I think it's brilliant he's coming back. I always thought he'd be back for The Masters - he couldn't really miss a major I didn't think, especially with his record at Augusta.

It might make it a little bit different to normal Masters. If it was a normal tournament the crowds would have been ridiculously big, but they can control the crowds and media a bit more at Augusta and obviously they have the power to chuck anyone out if they're being a bit off! It's probably the best place for him to come back to be honest. I'm sure that the players will welcome him back, although I'm not sure he'll even know I'm playing!

Chris Wood