Chris Wood analyzes his yard book during training this week in Thailand.
With respect
I love a good email subject line, and this one is loaded. “Former Ryder Cup Star Wood is about to return to the wilderness…”
You better believe I got the click.
The “wood” we were talking about is, of course, Chris Wood, the 2016 Ryder Cupper, a 36-year-old Englishman. Maybe you remember him, but if you don't, well, the “wilderness” made a little sense, too. It had been a long time since I thought about him. He is ranked 1,535 in the world. But this was not your ordinary golf desert
“I was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and burnout,” Wood said in an email. “I've had a bit of a rubbish time in the last few years where my golf has really taken a toll on me mentally.
“Actually I have been like that since 2019 but it took maybe four years before I did anything about it. It literally took me down to quit, and I didn't play at all last year. I took a year off, and this year I was going to try to get the card back in my hand.”
He was not exaggerating. Wood has gone 52 full weeks without competing in a sanctioned tournament. That is hard reset.
Part of my surprise at this information came from the way it was delivered: via a press release from the Asian Tour's International Series, which gifted Wood two consecutive weeks of release in Thailand. Press releases almost always contain fluff. Acknowledging that the tournament is happening, courses are being opened, that the player has signed with a new clothing sponsor. The quotes you see in press releases are often written by the media staff, or the players' managers, in formal language and with no frills excitement. They talk a lot about the brands they associate with and share the excitement of what's to come. This was clearly not the case. This had weight to it.
“It's still very difficult,” Wood continued, “but I'm still doing it because I want to, and because I feel I have a lot to offer.” I know the quality of the shots I got and I can hit them, that's why I still have them.”
The height of that person was very high. Wood made the European Ryder Cup team in 2016 and, while they lost to the Americans, won one of the two matches he played. He was ranked in the top 30 in the world at the time, having won the BMW PGA Championship, the premier event on the DP World Tour.
Sometime in late 2018 or early 2019, the flaws in his swing started showing up more often. In 2021, he told John Huggan of Golf Digest about a pro-am in India in early 2019 where he lost eight balls. A few months later, he walked off the golf course during an event in Morocco, telling Digest, “I was full. I couldn't really accept anything else.”
But he wasn't done yet. Wood made just two cuts in the shortened 2020 season. He made eight cuts in 22 tries in 2021, then made just one cut in 11 events during the 2022 Scottish Open, where I found him in the clubhouse. .
I was courting Joel Dahmen that week and needed a ride from the Renaissance Club, 45 minutes back to Edinburgh. Like many loopers, I was staying in a very cheap hotel back in the Scottish capital. Only a few players lived there, but Chris was one of them. He overheard me asking one of the concierge staff for a ride and he went out of his way to invite me on his cruise, a player-only Genesis ship.
We talked a lot about car rides, and about serious issues – his favorite football club, Manchester United, and gun control policies in America vs. Scotland. We parted ways when our driver arrived at the hotel, Chris having cleverly placed an order for dinner to pick up while we drove. That night's meal for Chris was as decent as they get at Ryder Cuppers: Nando's Chicken.
“Third time this week,” he told me. It's not glamorous when your game is in the dumps, but you were rolling with the punches. He shot 78 that day.
Two years later, there he was, in my email inbox, still dreaming, on the other side of 2023 which was extremely painful. He made the cut in Thailand on Friday, posting a second straight 69. He had a string of cuts on the Challenge Tour this summer, a circuit that plays under the DP World Tour. He has to play there again next year. But for now, it wraps up this week's event and hopefully it will play next week as well. The journey continues.
His final words, from what is now the best press release I've ever come across:
“Ten years ago if you had said to me, you would be in this position mentally, I didn't know what those words meant, and it takes going through something like this, or someone very close to you going through it, before you. he can understand what those struggles are really like.
“It's hard because I still believe I have the Ryder Cup in me, I really believe that, and I wouldn't continue to put myself in a position where I feel anxious and exposed unless I feel like it's going to be worth it. .”
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