The winner of the 2013 edition of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Chris Wood will be looking for a repeat performance at the Doha Course this weekend building on his memorable moments from four years back.
"I don't know where the 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 heros, Sergio Garcia, is pretty special," said the Ryder Cup rookie, Wood, during a press conference in Doha yesterday.
"So yeah, 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."
Commenting on how it is like to play in Doha, Wood said: "I'm generally quite happy playing in wind, so Doha, you tend to get breezy conditions. The greens have got quite a lot of grain on, so you've really got to be quite a good putter here. That's one of my strengths of my game now. And yeah, some guys struggle to settle in on greens like that. You've got not just the break of the green but the strength of the grass and the way the grain is growing, and it can frustrate some guys."
"I wouldn't consider myself one of the very longest but I'm long enough. Clearly it's suited to my game. I think I can reach all the par 5s, 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."
Commenting on being a part of an illustrious field, Wood said "look at it now. Every year we come back this time of year, obviously we have Abu Dhabi now, as well. We have three quality events to start our season off. It really is great, obviously known as The Desert Swing now."
"I sat next to Paul Lawrie on the flight over on Sunday night, and we're coming in to land and he was telling me, I think he played in the very first one 20 years ago. He was telling me about this building wasn't there; all these buildings weren't there and that was the only one here."
"Someone like me, my eighth year on Tour now, which feels a long time, but relatively, it's not. I never saw any of these places when the tournaments first came, so to listen and chat to the older boys like that gives you insight into how far these events have come," the 2013 champion said.
Wood also said that he has been focusing on resting in the off-season.
"It's nice to put the clubs away for a few weeks. We don't get a massive break, really, considering the amount of travel and the amount of time we're away from home over a year. To just have six weeks off, it goes very quickly."
"Put the clubs away for a few weeks, but then you've got to start, get back into it. Obviously you can't really spend too much time chipping and putting in the U.K. this time of year on frozen greens, all that sort of thing. Generally you're sort of just hitting a few balls and just trying to have a few games with your friends, and then come out to the Middle East a little bit early and sort of find that touch."
"I like the short game. Like I said, I can hit balls at home if I want and play on the course. But there's nothing like the shots around the greens or the five-foot putt you've got to hole. The more you can practice those, the more you can get a feel for the greens that you're putting on out here, the better. That's where I've really tried to spend most of my time at the moment."
Commenting on his experience in Abu Dhabi, Wood said, " 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 and 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."
