Chris Wood talks about his BMW PGA Championship victory celebrations on a boat floating down the Thames, his Ryder Cup dreams and his Olympics dilemma as he takes the reigns for this week’s player blog from the Lyoness Open powered by Sporthilfe Cashback Card.
Of course I should probably feel unbeatable this week, after the win at Wentworth and coming back here to Diamond Country Club as defending champion. But anyone who knows golf will know that it’s a game where everything can change week by week. You never feel like you’re unbeatable, so you’ve always got to keep on top of things and not get ahead of yourself because golf will bite you back very quickly. It’s a new week this week and I’m here to compete and hopefully do well.
Coming back as a defending champion is a great feelingand obviously you come back with great memories from last year. With that comes a little bit of added pressure but obviously I know I can play well around this course, so hopefully I can give it as good of a run as I gave it last year. I’ve got to beat some good players this week though. Obviously it’s hard to win any event on the European Tour. It’s four days of golf against some great players.
After I did all my stuff at Wentworth on Sunday night, Mark Watson from the European Tour set us up with a boat on the Thames.It’s obviously a pretty special time with friends and family and the boat, which was chartered that week for guests during the Championship I believe, was loaded with about 12 people at about nine o’clock. There was some Heineken, some champagne, pizzas and a massive bowl of chips which I don’t think left my caddie’s hands all night! We just tootled up the Thames for an hour or so and it was just amazing. My mum, my fiancée’s mum and sister were there, it was just the sort of thing that they really appreciated. Then we got back to the hotel and the lads got on the drink! It was a bit surreal really, because usually you’d be in an airport on your own flying home, even when you win. To win at Wentworth with all the friends and family and to be able to share it with them – I’ll never forget that.
Monday last week was a bit of a strugglebut I got back into my practice on Wednesday and it was just a normal week off then. I feel good right now, obviously my confidence is there winning in my last tournament and coming back to a place where I won last year, it all snowballs a bit so hopefully I can buzz off that and have a good week.
The Olympics clashes with my stag do!So I would have to cross that bridge if I came to it. Obviously Ryder Cup-wise, I’ve given myself a good chance now. There are a lot of big events still to go, but all I wanted to do this year was give myself a chance for Ryder Cup and I’ve done that so hopefully I can cement my place. If not, so be it, but I’ll be trying my hardest.
Darren Clarke was great at the EurAsia Cup.We had a great team that week and in the team room at the end of the day, he was showing us videos of past Ryder Cups, getting the music really loud and things like that. I really took to that and a lot of the team did too. Those things I would really look forward to but I also love being in a team environment. We play every week on our own out here so to have a bit of a laugh with the guys and feel part of a team for a week is pretty cool.
English golf is in a really good place right now.There are several guys that I played with in amateur golf who are all on tour here and we’ve all won. Hopefully players like Willett and Fitzpatrick and the other guys can push each other on and a lot of the other guys who come up through soon, so that we could have five, six or seven guys in future Ryder Cups, that would be unbelievable and we certainly have the players out here to do that.
There are some fiddly holes out here at Diamond Country Club where the water can creep in quite close off the edges of the greens. Last year on Sunday, it was quite windy and I shot 67 and didn’t drop a shot, which is easier said than done. Trouble is always close around the greens out there so it’s a course where you need a lot of patience and just aim for the middle of the greens sometimes.
I can’t wait for the US Open. It will be my first and we’ve all seen them on the telly, how tough the courses play. But I like courses where level par is a good score and generally that’s a great score at the US Open. I’ve heard so much about how tough it is so hopefully I can get through this week reasonably unscathed and go to America pretty fresh.
