By Julio Cesar Valdera Morales
Contributing Sports Writer
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The golf world has just witnessed another example of how it is possible to overcome adversity, no matter how extraordinary it may seem. Former DP World Tour and Ryder Cup star Chris Wood finished in a tie for seventh place at the Turkish Airlines Open this weekend, shooting a final-round 64.
That's no small feat, considering it's his first top-10 finish on the European Tour since 2018. Wood isn't even on the DP World Tour right now, and played in the Regnum Carya course thanks to special invitations from sponsors.
That hasn't always been the Englishman's status in Europe. Between 2013 and 2018, he won three tournaments and finished in the top 10 a whopping 25 times. His victories included the 2016 BMW PGA Championship, the DP World Tour's flagship event.
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Those results put him on the European team for the 2016 Ryder Cup, where he earned one point in two matches.
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However, his mental health began to deteriorate, and in 2019 he was diagnosed with chronic anxiety and burnout. His results began to decline to the point that he fell to 851st in the world rankings.
"It's been horrendous to be honest," Woods said after his performance in the Turkish Airlines Open. "Yeah, it's been, well, since 2019 really. I just feel like I've been going through hell, so yeah, to put a score together today is obviously great, but I want to feel like I know my game is there, not just put a score on one day, and I genuinely feel like I'm starting to do that now."
For the 2022 season, his results were so poor (only six cuts in 22 tournaments played) that he decided to take a sabbatical in 2023 to work on his mental health.
Wood returned in 2024, but only had the opportunity to play on the HotelPlanner Tour (DP World Tour's feeder circuit), where he managed to make eight cuts in 13 tournaments.
The 37-year-old also described how he dealt with a period of so much adversity:
"I've been working so hard at home just quietly and with a great team and yeah, it's been a long old road to be honest, but never lost belief in myself. You obviously have days where it feels harder than some, but the fire in my belly has always been there. So, you know, I'm relying on invites this year."
Wood also dedicated words of thanks to the DP World Tour:
"The Tour have been good, the medical team have really helped me, so hopefully this is the first little step forward."
The Englishman finished the Turkish Airlines Open with a 72-hole score of 11-under 273. He carded scores of 71, 67 and 71 before closing with the second-best score of the final day (64) to move up 32 places on the leaderboard and finish T7.
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