Wood wins Lyoness Open
Chris Wood overturned a five shot deficit to take the Lyoness Open title by two shots over Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello.
The 27-year old’s bogey free round saw him finish 15-under for the tournament and is his second win on the European Tour.
Robert Rock on how to handle tournament nerves
In testing conditions Wood produced some fine golf to catch overnight leader Gregory Bourdy and card a five-under 67 in Austria.
“It’s been a long time since Qatar and since I had my hands on a trophy,” said the Bristol native. “After a long tough winter injured you do wonder if it’s going to happen again.
“It’s a big relief today.
“I injured my wrist playing tennis last October and had to rest for five months.
“I came back in March and finished third in Morocco which I thought would give me a lot of confidence but then I didn’t get the results after that and played quite poorly for a few weeks.
“But the last month I have felt I was playing well enough to win so it has been coming.”
When asked if this more difficult than his first win, Wood said: “No, I’d say the opposite.
“I was leading by a couple going into the last day there, it’s always hard going to sleep on a lead.
“And you have a lot of things going through your mind.
“Today I was five behind going into the last day and I just knew I had to — I had a goal of breaking 68 today and I’ve managed to do that.
“I thought it would be close, depending on what Greg [Bourdy] did obviously.”
Wood had to produce one of the shots of the day at 16 to consolidate after an aggressive tee-shot. Pitching on to putt for birdie.
“That’s what we said at the start of the week,” Wood told Sky Sports. “If we can get it over those cross bunkers we’ve got a 60 yard pitch instead of 120 to a back left pin.
“That was always the play today. I just didn’t think it was going to be that tricky!
“I said to Punk – ‘I’ll do well to stop that on the green if I pitch it over that corner’ – so I played it absolutely perfectly.”
NCG regular columnist Robert Rock capped a top tournament for the English contingent with a tied third-place finish at 10-under par alongside Robert Dinwiddie and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
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