Chris Wood fuelled by feeling of belonging ahead of Augusta

Bristolian struggled to realise how good he is but now, after a change of coach and a spell in the psychologist’s chair, he sits comfortably with the elite. As such, he tells Kevin Garside, he is ready for a crack at Augusta without being overawed

Chris Wood at Long Ashton Golf Course in Bristol (Gareth Iwan Jones)

Quietly, by increments, the twentysomethings are moving into view. Their names might not resonate beyond the golfing firmament yet, but they will come September when this new generation of Englishmen bash down the doors of Europe’s Ryder Cup team.

In the vanguard of this forward march stands Chris Wood, a 6ft 5in Bristolian, who you might remember for his fifth place at the 2008 Open as an amateur, or his leap to third the following year, a result that earned him a Masters debut in 2010. Six years on he returns to Augusta a top-50 player, no longer requiring the freak outcome to gain entry to golf’s golden fairways.

Given his explosive introduction, you might wonder why it has taken Wood so long to impose his obvious talent on the professional environment. Though he boasts a not inconsiderable three European Tour victories, there is a sense with 28-year-old Wood of a career that has edged along at a rate incommensurate with his abilities.

A session in the psychologist’s chair of Ryder Cup veteran Thomas Bjorn earlier this year helped crack the paradox. “Phil Kenyon, my putting coach, was talking to Thomas in the desert [the UAE], and said I had not had the best of starts to the season, would he have a chat with me. Thomas said that most of my problem is I don’t believe I’m as good a player as I actually am, and he was spot on.

“I don’t know if that is my personality, or not, but you have to get over that. I know that now. There is a real opportunity to train on. I sense I’m coming into a new maturity. I’ve been striving for top-50 for years, now I’m there I have to believe I can compete against the top guys in big events.”

This painful lack of professional esteem manifested itself at the Eurasia Cup at the start of the year, where Wood was an automatic selection for Darren Clarke’s European team to face Asia. “I played with Westy [Lee Westwood] in the fourballs. He did not miss a shot, absolute machine. I think he was four under but I was five under so I had the better score yet I felt so out of place playing with him in that setting.

“He was one of my idols. I was on FaceTime with a mate the night before, I said to him: ‘have you seen the draw? I’ve got Westwood.’ I still couldn’t believe I was playing with him as my partner, fine in a three-ball, but as a team-mate after watching him for 15 years, idolising him. I put too much pressure on myself, and it really knocked my confidence. I think I carried that over a bit. But the golf is there, no doubt about it.”

Indeed so. A top-20 finish at Arnold Palmer’s pageant at Bay Hill last week, one stroke better than world No 3 Rory McIlroy, is testament to his growing confidence on golf’s bigger stages. This week he has again been at the high table contesting the second of four annual world golf championship events, the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship, in Texas. Also in that elite field were the other members of the emerging English brotherhood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Andy Sullivan and Danny Willett, the latter pair his amateur contemporaries.

“I played county matches with Sully, he was Warwickshire, I was Gloucester. Every year we seemed to be drawn together and it was always tough. He thrives on confidence, as you can see now. I roomed with Danny on trips abroad. We were the only ones in the gym first thing, no one else, and last to leave the range. Looking back we were the two with the right attitude and approach. He certainly spurred me on, and I suppose I did him. That generation from my amateur days are now coming on really strong, a changing of the guard if you like.”

Wood will take a first look at Augusta since 2010 in practice rounds this weekend before returning briefly to Bristol to hone his game in the comfort of familiar surroundings. Wood’s profound attachment to home, particularly to his Clifton barrio, might be a yolk he needs to break in order to fully integrate into the new order of world player.

Perhaps his split from long-time coach and confidante, Paul Mitchell, last year was a first step in that direction. There is a deep sensitivity still about the separation, but Wood felt he needed a new set of eyes on his swing if he were to progress. Since taking up with Westwood’s coach, Mike Walker, in May last year the results are obvious. “I play my best golf with a fade but I was struggling with a pull hook for a while. There was no sign of improvement so I had to make the change and it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do because Paul was my best mate. Working with Mike has cemented my rise to the top 50. I haven’t just sneeked in.”

The return to Augusta is in many ways a departure. On that first visit as a rookie he was winging it with nil expectation. “Birdied the first, sticking a 9-iron to six inches with my approach. I was thinking ‘this is all right’. I thought I hit a decent tee shot at the second, a fraction left maybe but in good shape. The ball caught a branch and went into the trees. I was cooked from there, took an eight.”

It was the definitive learning experience. “I played with Ryan Palmer and Larry Mize, who was 30-40 yards behind me off the tee, but on the greens, goodness me. It was my second year as a pro, well inexperienced. I learned a lesson that day. And not just on the course. I got told off for using my mobile in the wrong place. I was sat eating lunch texting Bethany [his fiancée]. I was too in awe of it, too inexperienced, but now I’m a different player, six years a pro. I’m going there with a different approach. I’m going to compete.”

And to help Bristol’s Southwest Children’s Hospice, a long-time benefactor of Wood’s charitable efforts, to whom he will donate cash per birdie with the help of sponsor Dribuild. They might be grateful that Wood put his Augusta hiatus to good use, absorbing every broadcast minute in the second week of April, filling his old Masters yardage book with the wisdom of others.

“I sit there with my course planner on my lap. When bits come up I make notes. Since Sky have been broadcasting they have had people like Jack Nicklaus on for an hour. He talks about six key shots at Augusta, one, funnily enough, is the second tee shot. I wrote down every one of those six, second into 11 was another and the tee shot at 12.

“They also do a Masters breakfast. When Billy Foster [caddie for Westwood] was injured they had him in with his yardage book. He had a red dot in every corner of the green. The dot was the direction of the grain towards Rae’s Creek. I copied them all down, so I feel I learned an awful lot without being there.”

Ultimately the technical stuff will take care of itself. It is the mental aspect that Wood needs to harden, and to that end he treasures his one and only pairing with the totem of the age, Tiger Woods, at the 2013 PGA Championship, his last year as world No 1.

“Henrik’s [Stenson] caddie said to me before we teed off, ‘make sure you learn, make sure you watch him.’ He turned a 78 into a 68 that day. That was the most impressive thing for me, not how he hit the ball. Inside 100 yards he was phenomenal. I chunked a two-iron off the first tee, pulled an 8-iron into the trees and got up and down for par. I then went birdie, birdie, birdie. Hopefully he thought I could play a bit. He was so high up on a pedestal, untouchable. I had never even spoken to the bloke. I was there to learn, and he was brilliant to play with.

“Early in the round I spoke to his caddie, Joe LaCava, to break the ice a bit. ‘How long you been out here, Joe?’ ‘Twenty seven years,’ he said. ‘Blimey, you were out before I was born.’ That got a laugh. Tiger hits it to eight feet at the first, the par-3. I did the same, a little bit inside him. He came over picked up my club and said: ‘man, these Mizuno guys make good clubs.’ I’m thinking: ‘This is Tiger having the craic with me, bloody hell.’ Now I have to make the mental adjustments. My journey is taking a little longer but I know I’ll get where I want to be.”