England’s Chris Wood has wonderfully ended a nine-year ‘official pro career victory’ wait in capturing the MENA Tour’s Rolear Algarve Classic on the Algarve in Portugal.
Wood, 38, was never headed leading from start to finish in posting rounds of 68, 65 and a closing 67 for a 16-under tally and one shot success in the second event of the revamed Tour.
Scotland’s Aidan O’Hagan, who has managed an ace on day one on the Christy O’Connor designed course, kept him right on Wood’s tale and also signing for a closing 67 to be runner-up at 15-under.
Wood continued to much in a class all his own just a few weeks ago when he ensured daylight was second in topping the Tour’s Q-School by a whopping six shots on the revamped 2025/26 MENA Tour schedule.
While a Q-School win does not count in terms of career wins nor Official World Ranking points there’s no such concern with his Algrave triumph coming so long after winning a third DP World Tour title with his 2016 BMW PGA success at Tour HQ in Surrey.
As well, his win in this third event of a 12 tournament 2025/26 schedule takes him to the top of the Tour money list.
NINE YEAR WAIT OVER ..
As Chris Wood first ‘official pro career’ event with MENA #rolearalgarveclassic on the Algarve
Chris’ first since 2016 @BMWPGA & with Aidan O’Hagan a super
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✅@Record_Sport @Record_Sport pic.twitter.com/nQHrBPYTgj
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) December 4, 2025
Wood’s remarkable week saw him play 52 holes without a blemish before finally dropping his first and only shot at the 17th hole on Thursday, a statistic that underlined his control and consistency throughout the tournament.
“It was a great start. I hit a lovely pitch into the first to a foot, another good pitch for about eight feet on the second, held a nice putt from 20 feet on the third,” said Wood, who opened with three consecutive birdies. “I felt very in control today, so yeah, I’m really pleased.”
The three-time DP World Tour winner acknowledged O’Hagan’s challenge throughout the final round. “Fair play to him. He hit some great shots on the back nine. I missed a couple of greens, managed to get up and down two out of those three. He was there all day long, really.”
O’Hagan mounted a spirited challenge on the final day. The 21-year-old Scot, who had shared the first-round lead with Wood, remained in contention throughout and gave himself every chance down the stretch, including a putt on the 18th that would have forced a play-off.
“I unfortunately hit one in the water on three and made double there, so a lot of it for me was just making sure that I was able to get it back to where I needed to be,” O’Hagan explained. “Slowly picked a few shots back up as we went and by the time we got to 18 I had a putt to tie it all up and it just slipped by unfortunately.”
Despite the disappointment, O’Hagan took significant positives from the experience of pushing a former Ryder Cup player all the way to the final hole. “I gained some belief today in my game. It’s been trending in the right direction and just being able to pull off the shots when I needed to, especially with how windy it was. Unfortunately, just a few putts slipped by, but it’s definitely a good stepping stone to kind of kick on after this.”
