Wood hopes to repeat his 2013 title feat

Chris Wood has set his sights on reclaiming the Mother of Pearl trophy in the 20th edition of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
“Every year I come back here, I sort of feel like I’m going to give myself a chance, just because of the memories that I have here. I always love coming back,” the 29-year-old Wood, who won his first European Tour title at the 2013 Qatar Masters in brilliant fashion with a last-hole eagle, said yesterday.
His victory was followed by a tie for 43rd in 2014 and a missed cut last January. He skipped the 2015 event due to injury.
The 25-year-old from Bristol rates his first title in 2013 as perhaps the best moment of his glittering career. “My win at the 2013 Qatar Masters is still one of the highlights of my career. It was pretty emotional to finally win my first European Tour title after what felt like many years,” Wood, the only Englishman to lift the Mother of Pearl trophy, said.
He also got nostalgic talking about his fist title win: “Yeah, this is the scene of my first win on the European Tour in 2013 here. I don’t know where time goes, four years ago now… But every year I come back here, I always sort of remember the shots I hit and the finish in particular. Eagling the last to beat one of my sort of childhood heroes, Sergio Garcia, is pretty special.
“It was massive, really. And I think I showed it in my sort of celebration. I sort of gave everything to a fist pump I could, really, when I holed that eagle putt! Yeah, I think obviously I’ve come on as a player since then.
“Four years is quite a long time. I’ve put myself in contention to win more events since, and I have done that. There’s nothing like feeling the importance of every single shot over the last few holes when you’re in contention. You know, one shot, one putt missed here or there can make all the difference…”
“It’s hard to explain until you’ve been in that position, but it really is the reason that we play; the pressure that you put yourself under trying to win a tournament, trying to finish a tournament off. It’s like something I’ve never experienced week-in and week-out, really,” Wood added.
After winning further European Tour titles at the 2015 Lyoness Open in Austria and last year’s BMW PGA Championship in England, Wood finished fourth on the Ryder Cup European points list last year to secure a first appearance in the biennial team competition against Team USA.
“It will feel good to compete here in my first full season after playing at the Ryder Cup because I would like to keep playing well enough to make the 2018 team,” he said.
Discussing the success of big hitters in Doha, he said: “I wouldn’t consider myself one of the very longest but I’m long enough. So yeah, clearly it’s suited to my game. I think I can reach all the par 5s here, apart from the ninth, which maybe only one or two guys can reach in two. But you know, clearly I’ve won here before, so there’s every chance again this week,” the 6-foot-6 inch golfer said.
The Englishman missed the cut last week in Abu Dhabi despite a solid second-round 68. “I was probably mentally quite rusty on the first day. Let three or four shots go, which I wouldn’t necessarily have done if it was sort of midway through the season.
“But then the second day, I felt I was right back on it, and it was an easy 68 for me, really. So even though I missed the cut I came away with a little bit of confidence because I’ve never really done well there. But I showed enough to feel like my game is in pretty good shape coming into this week,” the gentle giant concluded.