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Daily Record
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Ryder Cup star reveals anxiety and fear that left him being unable to face golf anymore
Former Ryder Cup star Chris Wood is finding form again after taking a break to his with struggles Candid Chris Wood has opened up on the struggles which forced him out of golf and his fight back from the anxiety which meant he simply couldn't face the game. The popular English star won the BMW PGA Championship nine years ago and also made a Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine. But Wood started having doubts about his game and that led him to step away from the sport two years ago. The 37-year-old has come back and returned to the Top 10 spots for the first time in almost seven years at the recent Turkish Airlines Open. Wood started this week's Soudal Open in Belgium with one-under par round of 70 to maintain his positive path and gave an insight into his troubles in a stunningly-honest DP World Tour Player Blog. He wrote: 'I started to feel my swing not becoming my swing towards the end of 2016. I had a year of playing the best golf of my career but I just felt it started to drift. 'In 2019 I was working with my coach and I started to develop some severely wide shots, particularly with my driver, to the point where I didn't carry a driver in the bag at Wentworth at the BMW PGA Championship in 2019, just three years after I'd won it, that's how quickly it got from one point to another. 'From then, I was just riddled with anxiety and fear and tension from the moment I left home for a tournament. It was 24/7 during tournament weeks, I was extremely anxious and not sleeping and it becomes a vicious cycle. 'You're constantly draining energy, but at that point, I was hitting balls like I needed to do it more to make my swing better. There's a saying with golfers: the secret's in the dirt, golf is practice until your hands bleed. But I was in a point where I was not really connected to myself in my swing. I was rightly trusting my coaches, but I wasn't questioning them. 'I hardly played during Covid, I couldn't face it. With the Tour freezing the categories, I didn't have to play and I was starting to recognise those feelings that I was getting in 2019: the anxiety, the fear, the tension and we weren't directly affected at home so we had a really good time. 'At home my wife Bethany and I had two young children, we've got four now, Jonah, Lottie, Toby and Kasper, but we had two at the time and every day when we'd go for our hour walk which we were allowed to do. Bethany would be the one who was the listener every single day. That was probably the first time I was really talking about how I was feeling about things which was obviously extremely hard for her to listen to and to hear. For someone who has always encouraged me to be playing and then for me to turn around and say I'm not going to be playing, I don't want to be playing and these are the reasons why, my wife has always been someone I tell everything so she has been in the picture the entire time. 'I can remember those walks incredibly well based on the strength of those conversations. I'd then do two hours of practice every afternoon and it was a good balance. But I was not really improving. I should have stopped there but I didn't realise what I was dealing with at that point. 'I kept going until I lost my card in 2022. But about six weeks before the end of the season, I sat down with DP World Tour doctor Tim Swan and just opened up and revealed I'd been struggling. From there the Tour medical team have been great, they put me in touch with the right people but then I played in South Africa on the HotelPlanner Tour in January 2023 and I just broke down while speaking to my parents on the phone and they just both said 'come home'. 'That was the point where I knew I could not face it any more and I knew I needed to step away and deal with it correctly. I then spent a lot of time working on the burnout I had suffered because of the cycle I had put myself in and then I started to deal with the anxiety. There was never once a part of me that thought that I was done, that the break that I took from the game in 2023 would be permanent. 'You have days where you're feeling severely down, there's no other word for it but depression. But the fire in my belly has never gone away. I've always believed that I've got the ability to play. I'm now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel both mentally and with my game. My daughter wants a trophy party so she can wear a party dress. My children have not seen me win a tournament, so that's a huge motivator for me. 'I want to get my card back, that's my goal. The result in Turkey has obviously given me a nice few points. I've got a long way to go to be able to do it but that's the aim. Anything beyond that would be a bonus. I've been starting to talk a bit more about my struggles I've been through the last few years. I'm absolutely delighted to be able to feel like that because a few years ago being able to talk about my struggles felt a long way off. I now feel really comfortable with what's happened."
The 42
14-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Lowry keeping the faith as he seeks to bounce back from the 'hurt' of latest near-miss
SHANE LOWRY HAS become a study in the paradox of professional golf: the better you play, the more criticism you get. Since the 2023 Ryder Cup – for which he was a captain's pick having ranked 78th on the PGA Tour and endured a six-month stretch without a top-10 anywhere – Lowry has dramatically raised the floor of his game. Last week Lowry broke into the world's top 10 for the first time, and has finished inside the top-20 in 18 of his last 23 events, stretching back to last year's US Open. His burgeoning reputation is recognised by more glamorous groupings at major championships, and tomorrow he will play alongside Rickie Fowler and two-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka. But Lowry is finding that it's not just the air that's thinner at the highest levels: the praise is too. Hence attention is now increasingly drawn to the fact his last solo victory came at the 2022 BMW PGA Championship, which broke a drought going back to the 2019 Open at Portrush. Lowry lost out to Rory McIlroy when playing in the final group at Pebble Beach at the start of the year, but last week brought his most gut-wrenching miss yet. Advertisement 'I was asked about it a lot last week, having not won in a while', says Lowry. 'They love talking about it over here, but I feel like it's hard to win out here. The standard is good, and a couple of things go your ways on Sundays and it can be very different.' Tied for the lead with three holes remaining at the Truist Championship with Sepp Straka last weekend, Lowry bogeyed 16 and then 18 to miss out by two shots. He sank to his haunches and buried his face in his hands after a sloppy three-putt on the final green, with his aggressive birdie putt backfiring and taking the pressure off Straka's testing par putt. Lowry left the course in Philadelphia without speaking to the media. 'Look, Sunday, hurt a bit', Lowry told the Irish media by the 18th green at Quail Hollow ahead of tomorrow's opening day. 'I felt like I probably could have won that tournament. I should have won that tournament and it's hard to win out here. So when you give yourself chances like that, it stings.' The schedule then tipped Lowry right into the year's second major at Quail Hollow, but Monday's deluge of rain meant practice was curbed and Lowry was forced into a day of (relative) rest, and so went to the gym and did some recovery before catching up on The Sunday Game. Bouncing back from last Sunday's disappointment will be made more difficult by the demands of Quail Hollow, a bombers paradise which does not play to the strengths of Lowry's preference for precision over power. 'I'm gonna have to play my best even get in or around the lead on the weekend', says Lowry. 'I've no record around here at all, bad, not played well.' Lowry isn't normally one to swan-dive into statistics, but he has delved into his record at Quail Hollow and found his issue is not an issue off the tee, but around the green. This, he says, heartens him, as his chipping and putting are in a good place. (Lowry ranks 15th for strokes gained around the green on the PGA Tour this year.) 'I'll be completely honest with you, I wish we were at a venue that suits my game a little bit better, but I do feel like if I play my best golf, I can contend. It'll be hard, like I said, but I am actually playing some of my best golf around now.' And when it comes to finally getting over the line, Lowry can call on some inspiration from McIlroy. 'You just have to keep knocking on the door and the next chance I get I'll try to burst through it. It's all you can do. 'We could be here talking about worse things. Giving myself a chance is a great place to be, that's what I will try to keep doing. 'Pro golf is just full ups and downs. When you're going well you need to try to ride the wave as best you can and take advantage of it, and when you're not going great you just have to fight as hard as you can through it. I have done that well over the last few years and here I am again, trying to ride the wave as best I can. Hopefully there's a great day ahead of me in the near future.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kiwi Ryan Fox Wins Myrtle Beach Classic in Playoff
It was a wet and sloppy 7,347-yard track on Sunday, but Ryan Fox was the best mudder at the opposite-field event in Myrtle Beach, earning a playoff victory. It was the New Zealander's first career victory on the PGA Tour and first win since the 2023 BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour. Advertisement Since that victory, Fox had struggled to come close to winning on either tour. Fox's only top-10 in 2025 came on the DP World Tour in Dubai in January. Ryan Fox chips in on the first playoff hole for his first victory on the PGA Tour at the Myrtle Beach Classic golf tournament. Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images On the PGA Tour, where the Kiwi spends most of his time, his 10 starts have produced four missed cuts, and when he did make it to the weekend, he has not been very successful. His best finish in 2025 was a T15 at the Texas Children's Houston Open at the end of March. 'It's obviously just a different country, different culture,' Fox said. The transition to living in the U.S. has been difficult. 'For me, I was really comfortable in Europe. I'd been out there, like, seven or eight years, knew how everything worked, knew the tournaments I wanted to play, knew a lot of the golf courses. Coming over here last year, everything was new. New golf courses, new cities.' Advertisement The playoff was short, with Fox producing the worst drive on the 18th hole. He missed the fairway, then missed the green but made a 54-foot chip from off the green and then waited for Harry Higgs and Mackenzie Hughes to miss their birdie putts for the win. 'Obviously, I knew the two guys had pretty good birdie chances, I just wanted to give the chip a run at it,' Fox said of his winning chip on the first playoff hole. 'I had a really similar line in regulation and missed the putt right. My caddie, Dean, said to me, Remember, this doesn't break that much. So, I just kind of aimed straight at it, and I hit the spot I wanted to hit, which is always a nice thing.' The 38-year-old Fox benefits immediately with a spot in next week's PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour. Ryan Fox (NZL) on the 18th green during the final round of the 2023 BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth Golf Club, Virginia Water, Surrey, | Fran Caffrey But the win likely has some therapeutic benefits as well. Advertisement 'I kind of had a similar thing happen in '22. I had had a couple of tricky years through COVID and won in Ras Al Khaimah, and that took all the pressure off, and I had a really great year after that,' Fox said. 'So certainly, hoping the same thing happens this year, but in this game you don't get to win very often, so that's certainly nice to have that in the back of my mind and can feel like for the rest of the year I can kind of freewheel it a little bit.' Related: Wood Finally Finds his Game in Turkey Related: In Myrtle Beach, an Opposite-Field Event With Plenty of Opportunity
Irish Daily Mirror
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Shane Lowry refuses to speak to media after costing himself €1.6million
Shane Lowry refused to speak to media after he suffered heartbreak at the Truist Championship on Sunday evening, losing to Ryder Cup teammate Sepp Straka. Straka held his nerve to fire a final round 68 to win by two strokes and the loss means Lowry has not recorded an individual tournament win since September 2022, when he beat Rory McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship. The key moment came on the 16th hole when Lowry missed a five-foot putt and made a bogey, while Straka managed a par to lead by one shot with two holes remaining. Lowry scooped a cool $1.76m but a win would have seen him earn a staggering $3.6m A rattled Lowry then three-putted the 18th hole to finish joint second with American Justin Thomas. Despite being magnanimous on the green with Straka afterwards, the pain on his face was evident as he trudged off the course. After failing to close out victory, he reportedly left the Philadelphia Cricket Club course without fulfilling media duties. Lowry's actions spoke volumes about his disappointment as he now prepares for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow this week. The 38-year-old isn't the first star to skip a post-tournament press conference on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy refused to speak to the press after his late collapse at the 2024 US Open, with Collin Morikawa doing similar at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. Lowry's reported media snub follows his outburst at the Masters last month, when he snapped during a post-third-round interview. The Irishman became frustrated about constantly being asked about Rory McIlroy's chances at Augusta and last week, argued that players shouldn't be subjected to the media immediately after playing. 'I think we need time,' he said. 'I can't come to talk to you guys straightaway. It shouldn't be happening. I don't agree with it. Tennis players have to talk to the media, but they have half an hour or an hour before they have to do it. 'I feel like we should have the same thing. That's how I feel. I'm probably going to say something stupid. I probably already have said something stupid because I'm p***ed off right now.'
Fox Sports
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Ryan Fox chips in for birdie in playoff to win Myrtle Beach Classic and take PGA spot
Associated Press MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Ryan Fox of New Zealand chipped in from just outside 50 feet on the first playoff hole to win the Myrtle Beach Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, sending him back to the PGA Championship. Fox closed with a 5-under 66 that looked like it might not be enough when Mackenzie Hughes came to the 18th hole with a one-shot lead. Hughes pulled his drive into the trees, had to pitch out and missed a 10-foot par putt for a 67 that put him in a playoff at 15-under 269 with Fox and Harry Higgs, who missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th with a chance to win for the first time. Higgs shot 68. Going back to the 18th for the playoff, Hughes and Higgs found the fairway and each had decent looks at birdie. Fox went from the rough to the collar right of the green. He raised both arms when the chip dropped for birdie. Higgs and Hughes each missed their birdie putts. The 38-year-old Fox had won three times on the European tour, including the flagship BMW PGA Championship in 2023, and has climbed as high as No. 23 in the world. But he had yet to record a top 10 on the PGA Tour this year. The PGA Championship was holding a spot in the field at Quail Hollow for the winner of the Myrtle Beach Classic. This will be Fox's fourth straight year playing the major. Hughes was already in the field. The victory also gives Fox a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and a spot in The Sentry at Kapalua to start next year. ___ AP golf: in this topic
