Ryder Cup star explains why he is happy to take PGA Tour ban to enter LIV Golf qualifying

Ryder Cup star Chris Wood has revealed he has entered LIV Golf qualifying next month because: “I need golf”.

And the former world No.22, who gave up the game because of severe anxiety, insisted he can recapture the form which won him three DP World Tour titles. Woods admitted he went “through hell” before making his first top ten for six years at the Turkish Airlines Open in May.

The world No.750 just missed out at DP World Q School and then qualified for and won a MENA Tour (Middle East & North Africa) event in Portugal last month - his first victory since the 2016 BMW PGA at Wentworth.

Now Wood, 38, has now entered the LIV Golf Promotions event where the top two players from a field of 87 will earn places in the Saudi-backed tour in 2026. The winner also banks $200,000. Teeing up in Florida next month means he is banned from the PGA Tour all year.

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But Wood, who plays the weekly roll-up at his Long Ashton Golf Club said: “I need golf and I want golf. In the last few years I have not really chased invites or pushed for a full schedule but now I am in a place where I need to put myself out there and I need to play. And LIV is an opportunity to play.

“Yes, obviously it is divisive. But I am not going to sit at home and wait for invites. Hopefully they will come. And I feel that if I want to get back into the events I want to, I need to be ready when the phone rings.

“There are so many opportunities in world golf now and I am open minded to all of them. It’s another opportunity to go and play.

"Of course there are differences between the world tours but I don’t see it like that at all. I need to have a card in my hand. I need to be competitive. LIV Q School is a really difficult format - there are only two places. But there are also ten spots on offer for their International Series on the Asian Tour.

“Unless I am on tour or playing somewhere, I will be at Q School next year. Hopefully I will have done things to avoid that. There is a lot of work to do to achieve one of the two LIV cards but it is a different conversation then.”

Wood went “six, seven eight months” without going on a golf course - and lost his card - before his coach James Martin took him back out with just his 6-iron and a putter in 2023.

“Pretty much every other club had trauma attached to it,” he recalled. “And I needed to stay away from that and start my recovery I suppose.That was pretty much rock bottom in terms of rebuilding my game.

“It has been really hard the last few years. Now I am feeling good. I am probably not far off as good as I have ever been mentally. I am not suffering.

"Obviously the only thing missing really is the confidence that comes from playing and results. I missed the cut in DP Q School last month and I just wanted to play. I had been dreading going out on a golf course so I knew that was a very good sign. I then won the MENA event by six and I was quite proud of that.”

Wood, who now works with sports coach Dr Edward Coughlan, added: “I am seeing it as a bit of a second career. The motivation is still inside me. But in my difficult times, my anxiety over-rode it all. I am still working at that but I am at a point now where I can cope and put it to bed over shots. Can I get back to where I was? Yes 100%. I truly believe that I have still got great golf in me. We will see where next year goes.”