Former Ryder Cup player Chris Wood has opened up about his struggles with chronic anxiety as he bids to get his career back on track.
Wood finished fifth in the 2008 Open as an amateur and was third the following year at Turnberry, where a bogey on the 72nd hole left him a shot outside the play-off between Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.
A third DP World Tour title in the 2016 BMW PGA Championship secured Wood’s place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team and he won one point from two matches at Hazeltine, losing his singles to Dustin Johnson on the 18th.
The 36-year-old from Bristol has suffered from injuries and a loss of form in recent years and played just two Challenge Tour events in 2023 before taking a full year out.
STRUGGLING FOR A FEW YEARS
“I was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and burnout,” the world number 1,535 said ahead of contesting back-to-back events in Thailand, part of the Asian Tour’s International Series.
“I’ve been through a really rubbish time over the last few years where my golf has really impacted me mentally.
“I’ve actually been like that since 2019 but it took maybe four years before I did anything about it. It took literally bottoming out to stop. I took a whole year off and this year has been about trying to get a card in my hand again.
“It’s still very, very hard, but I’m still doing it because I want to and because I feel like I’ve got so much more to offer. I know the quality of shots I’ve got and I can hit, so that’s why I’m still in it.
“Ten years ago, if you had said to me you will be in this position mentally, I was so unaware of what those words meant, and it takes going through something like this, or someone very close to you going through it, before you can appreciate what those struggles are actually like.
“It’s hard because I still believe I’ve even got a Ryder Cup in me, I truly believe that, and I wouldn’t still be putting myself in positions where I feel anxious and exposed unless I felt like it’s going to be worth it.”