When England’s Chris Wood was growing up he carried with him a small note book and he used the book to jot down notes from watching famous golfers on TV.
On the cover of the note book was a picture of 14-time Major winning Tiger Wood and on the back was a picture of Sergio Garcia.
Wood first watched Garcia compete close-up at the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry. He followed the Spaniard from the practice range, to the putting green and then about the course.
Chris Wood reveals he’s beaten one of his boyhood heroes but it might be a little harder defeating the second. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
The new Commercial Bank Qatar Masters champion then returned to his Bristol home, pulled out his note book and wrote down things he’d learned from watching Garcia.
“I took note of every lesson I had, and I also had two stickers stuck in the back of the book, one was of Tiger and one was Garcia,” said Wood.
“I remember watching Sergio on the putting green at the Ryder Cup at The Belfry in 2002 and kind of hoping that I could be like that one day, so to beat him by one last week was pretty satisfying (smiling).
“I don’t know him well enough to tell him that but then I know him to say hello to.”
The win over Garcia and South African George Coetzee lifted Wood from 142nd to 60th in the world.
Garcia also picked up five places to move to No. 14 and the Spaniard was asked what he thought about Wood’s comments.
“I’m sure Chris was happy to beat me,” he said smiling.
“But it’s great to know he kind of looked up to me a little bit when he was younger. At the end of the day, we both work hard at what we do and we try to it the best way possible.
“For me, it was nice to see him not only eagle the last, but come back after the double bogey on three and be able to win. I think for me that was maybe more impressive than the eagle on 18.
“It’s easy to start thinking of, oh, here we go again; I’m leading and now I’ve doubled the third and now everybody is right on my back. That was good to see obviously.
“So I was happy for him. He’s a nice guy and he deserves it. He probably deserves a win before last week, but you know it’s okay.”
