‘My anxiety’s been horrendous’ – former Ryder Cup star makes welcome return to form in Turkey

Mark Townsend 12 May 2025

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Chris Wood, a Ryder Cup player as recently as 2016, was winding down his career. Last season he teed it up in 13 Challenge Tour events, made the cut in eight of them but only made a little over €11,000.

On the DP World Tour his game seemingly fell off a cliff from 2019 onwards, having been a mainstay of the Tour for the previous decade, as he struggled to finish inside the top 200 on the money list. This year he played in Qatar as a past winner; before that he was at the Final Stage at Q School where he failed to make the last two days.

But this week Wood popped up at the Turkish Airlines Open on an invite and it proved to be an inspiring move by the Tour as he provided the most inspiring story of the week, a closing 64 giving him a share of seventh spot and a pay cheque of €56,684 – his last top 10 came at the 2018 KLM Open.

Wood is one of the absolute good guys in the game, there’s no side to him and he’s still the same character that he was when he was a stellar amateur.

In 2008 he finished fifth at The Open at Royal Birkdale while still in the upaid ranks. The following year he might easily have won the Claret Jug – had he parred the 72nd hole he would have made the play-off with Tom Watson and Stewart Cink.

The Open

In 2016 he won the lucatrive PGA Championship at Wentworth and played his way onto Darren Clarke’s Ryder Cup team where he and Justin Rose won their foursomes before losing at the last to Dustin Johnson in the singles.

Wood is still only 37 but, for the past six years, he’s really struggled.

“It’s been horrendous to be honest. Since 2019 really, I just feel like I’ve been going through hell. So to put a score together is obviously great but I’ve wanted to feel like I want to feel like I know my game’s there, not just put a score on one day, and I genuinely feel like I’m starting to do that now,” an emotional Wood explained.

“I’ve been working so hard at home just quietly and with a great team and just, yeah, it’s been a long old road to be honest, but yeah, never lost belief in myself. You obviously have days where it feels harder than some but the fire in my belly has always been there.

“I’m relying on invites this year and my old manager, Cagey (Stuart Cage), rang me last Tuesday night and said about playing this week and I’m ready. I’m practising so well at home that a call last minute isn’t a problem. I played with Ollie Wilson the first couple of days and he was asking how I’m doing it, to be match ready, I suppose. So they’re my secrets, I’m not giving them away.”

Wood has struggled with chronic anxiety in recent years but hopefully this will be a big move towards getting the Bristolian player back on tour.

“My anxiety’s been horrendous so the tour have been good, the medical team have really helped me so hopefully this is like the first little step forward and, anyone who wants me to be at their event, please pick up the phone because I need a few starts this year.

“Even though I’ve felt like I’ve truly believed I’ve still had the game, the big thing is I’ve seen all the shots, I know I can hit the shots, I’ve just not been able to hit them.”