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BRITISH MASTERS SUPPORTED BY SKY SPORTS

October 11, 2016

Chris Wood

Watford, Hertfordshire, England

STEVE TODD: Welcome to the British Masters. I'm sure it's nice to have a tournament on home soil again, especially after The Ryder Cup, and after everything that's happened, it must be almost a perfect tournament to come back to and play this week.

CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, just being able to get in my car and just drive up the road is great, instead of coming back from America and then going the other side of the world, I suppose, is a massive help.

And everything, just like little things, to drive to a tournament, knowing what you're getting for dinner, little things like that, home crowds, they make a huge difference to the week. So the familiarity you get from playing at home I think is quite a big hope.

STEVE TODD: I was just thinking to you there, the guys who have done the BMW, British Masters double in the same year, Faldo, Monty, Seve; it would be quite illustrious company.

CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, that's quite a big sort of thing for me to take in, that. And that's extra motivation to try and -- well, to try and compete and try and win the tournament this week. That would be a hell of a thing to sort of have on your C.V. really, to be associated with those three players. Yeah, it's quite something, that.

STEVE TODD: Just a word about this tournament in terms of the promotion, the look of it, the feel of it. We're trying to do something a little bit different with the game and the coverage of it. How much of it is enjoyable for the players?

CHRIS WOOD: I love doing all that side of things. We're doing the pressure putt thing on Wednesday I'm involved in. ^ I don't know who it is tonight but a few of the boys tonight doing the night golf thing, I think that's pretty cool. That can probably grow into -- could you have music going or whatever. Sort of like a free shot at trying something different, really.

So everything like that, I think's great. And you know, it's great for the U.K., as well. I love seeing the British flag on all of the flags and all the way around the course. I suppose it reminds the rest of Europe we're still here (laughter).

Q. The other thing is, do you regard this as the start of a very busy time, building up to The Race to Dubai?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, it's like once The Ryder Cup, obviously building up to The Ryder Cup, all the pressure was on myself, I felt, to obviously make the team. And then once you're in the team, you want to perform well and that brings another pressure. The three events I played leading up to it were purely all about preparing for The Ryder Cup.

It takes quite a lot out of you, particularly your first one, because you don't know what to expect, but now I've gone through it, I've played nicely myself, and now you can -- it was a good idea to probably have a week off last week and then look at this as the start of the end of the season, really. You can sort of get back in your own bubble and get into sort of normal tournament mode again.

Q. Just saw your Tweet last night when Tiger announced unfortunately he wasn't fit to play on Thursday. Can you just speak a little about sort of your feelings about him, and do you think it's over, or do you think we will see him again?
CHRIS WOOD: I don't think he'll ever say it's over. I was probably like everyone, completely surprised at that, where that came from, because all the noises building up to it had been: Tiger's ready, he's playing great, he's fit. He seemed fine at The Ryder Cup walking around and that sort of thing. But you never know with Tiger. Nobody's ever known, really, throughout his whole career what he really does golf-wise when he's at home, practice-wise, gym, all that sort of thing, nobody knows and never gives on.

It's really disappointing, because I was ready to watch it, and obviously it would have been great for The European Tour for him to play in Turkey in, what, his second event back. There would have still been that buzz of Tiger's back sort of thing, and he's playing on The European Tour.

So it is really disappointing for myself as a golf fan to watch, to be able to sit down and watch him play, because he was my golfing hero. He won the Masters when I was ten years old, so from that point on, he's the only guy I've ever looked up to really. And he doesn't deserve for his career to come to a finish in this way. He deserves to go out in all the style that his records still deserve really.

Q. You would have seen him at The Ryder Cup. As far as you could tell, did he look okay? Sort of back injuries or back problems are a tricky thing.
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, he seemed fine. I don't know if he followed any of my games or the two games I played. But you see him roaming about and he's hopping off buggies and walking about and on the range with the guys. Seemed to get on well with the fans.

Like on the first tee, when every player walks on to the first tee, particularly when they are at home, all the fans will start singing a song about them. And Tiger seemed to take that on board really well when I was down on the first tee area, having sort of a craic with the fans and it's great to see that. But we all want to see him back on the golf course.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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