Former Ryder Cup participant Chris Wooden has opened up about his struggles with continual nervousness as he bids to get his profession again on monitor.
Wooden completed fifth within the 2008 Open as an novice and was third the next 12 months at Turnberry, the place a bogey on the 72nd gap left him a shot outdoors the play-off between Stewart Cink and Tom Watson.
A 3rd DP World Tour title within the 2016 BMW PGA Championship secured Wooden’s place on Europe’s Ryder Cup crew and he received one level from two matches at Hazeltine, shedding his singles to Dustin Johnson on the 18th.
The 36-year-old from Bristol has suffered from accidents and a lack of kind in recent times and performed simply two Problem Tour occasions in 2023 earlier than taking a full 12 months out.
STRUGGLING FOR A FEW YEARS
“I used to be recognized with continual nervousness and burnout,” the world no 1,535 stated forward of contesting back-to-back occasions in Thailand, a part of the Asian Tour’s Worldwide Collection.
“I’ve been via a very garbage time over the previous few years the place my golf has actually impacted me mentally.
“I’ve really been like that since 2019 but it surely took perhaps 4 years earlier than I did something about it. It took actually bottoming out to cease. I took an entire 12 months off and this 12 months has been about attempting to get a card in my hand once more.
“It’s nonetheless very, very exhausting, however I’m nonetheless doing it as a result of I need to and since I really feel like I’ve bought a lot extra to supply. I do know the standard of pictures I’ve bought and I can hit, in order that’s why I’m nonetheless in it.
“Ten years in the past, in the event you had stated to me you may be on this place mentally, I used to be so unaware of what these phrases meant, and it takes going via one thing like this, or somebody very near you going via it, earlier than you’ll be able to admire what these struggles are literally like.
“It’s exhausting as a result of I nonetheless imagine I’ve even bought a Ryder Cup in me, I actually imagine that, and I wouldn’t nonetheless be placing myself in positions the place I really feel anxious and uncovered until I felt prefer it’s going to be value it.”
