Chris Wood discusses the MENA Golf Tour pathway that changed everything
Chris Wood arrived at Golf Nazionale in Viterbo, Italy in early May with something to prove. He left with a trophy.
The 38-year-old Englishman birdied the 72nd hole to win the Italian Challenge Open on his first HotelPlanner Tour start of the 2026 season, finishing 22 under par after holding off a late charge from Portugal’s Tomás Gouveia. It came less than two months after Wood had been confirmed as winner of the 2025/26 MENA Golf Tour Rankings.
It was the perfect example of the pathway working exactly as intended.
“It feels brilliant,” Wood said after his win in Italy. “You’re never given tournaments, you have to go out and earn them and I feel like I did that.”
A CAREER REBUILT FROM THE GROUND UP
To understand what that win means, it helps to know where Wood has come from.
At his peak he was among the best golfers in Europe. He won three times on the DP World Tour, reached 22nd in the world rankings, and in 2016 claimed the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth before earning automatic Ryder Cup selection for Europe at Hazeltine under Darren Clarke. For a player who had worked his way up through the professional ranks the hard way, it was the pinnacle.
Then, from 2019 onwards, chronic anxiety and burnout dismantled everything he had built.
“The challenge with anxiety is it takes over your life,” Wood said. “You are trapped and feel like you can’t get on top of it. It’s a very patient journey for me and the people I have around me.”
The physical effects were visible. His swing became short and out of sync, his results evaporated, and he lost his DP World Tour card. At his lowest point he fell outside the top 2,000 in the world rankings.
He never considered quitting. But he needed a way back in.
THE MENA GOLF TOUR OPENED THE DOOR
At the end of 2025, Wood missed the cut by a single shot at DP World Tour Qualifying School Final Stage.
Wood said: “The timing was perfect for me. I remember coming home from Q School strangely upbeat. It wasn’t a case of I’ve just missed out on some opportunities next year, it was ‘right, I’m in a better place here, I need to play.’ That led to the question of where can I play? I genuinely didn’t know, but then the MENA Golf Tour was presented to me and it just felt right.
“I love travelling, you have to as a professional golfer, and the destinations the Tour had on the schedule really appealed to me.”
He went to MENA Golf Tour Q School in Portugal, alone, and won it by six shots. Wire to wire.
What followed was a season that exceeded even his own expectations. Wood won three times across three countries: the Rolear Algarve Classic in Portugal, the Address Marassi Resort event in Egypt and the Al Houara Classic in Morocco. He finished the 2025/26 season as Rankings champion with 59,320 points, more than 26,000 clear of nearest challenger Juan Salama.
“Winning gave me that feeling which all golfers crave,” said Wood. “It was an opportunity to put into practice all the work I’d put in mentally, but to get the reward by winning is special wherever it is.”
Along the way he has drawn on a support team he describes as the best he has ever had – coach James Martin, close friend and former professional Chris Lloyd on the bag, and Sir Nick Faldo available on the end of a phone for ideas and encouragement. When Padraig Harrington crossed paths with him at the Qatar Masters and offered a characteristically straightforward observation – “winning is winning” – it resonated with Wood.
The Tour itself played its part too.
Wood said: “I felt comfortable when I found out Keith Waters was Commissioner. The communication with the players and the players’ meetings meant there was full transparency in what ended up being particularly difficult times in the Middle East.”
THE PATHWAY IN ACTION
When Wood claimed the Rankings title, the rewards followed quickly.
As the season’s leading player, he received a Category 12 exemption and a full HotelPlanner Tour card for the remainder of 2026. Wood, alongside Salama and third-placed Pierre Pineau, also earned direct exemptions into Stage Two of the DP World Tour Qualifying School in October, bypassing the earlier qualifying stages.
His win at the Italian Challenge Open has since opened up a second route. Promotion to the DP World Tour is awarded to the top 15 on the season-ending Road to Mallorca rankings, and the victory has given Wood a strong chance of finishing among them next season.
Wood is not the only MENA Golf Tour player making a mark on the HotelPlanner Tour this season. Fellow MENA Golf Tour regular Will Porter finished tied fourth at the Italian Challenge Open. Juan Salama, runner-up in the 2025/26 MENA Golf Tour Rankings, finished tied third at the Danish Golf Challenge. These are players who earned their opportunities through the MENA Golf Tour – and they are more than holding their own at the next level.
MENA Golf Tour Chairman and Commissioner Keith Waters said: “Winning three times in three different countries and topping the Rankings from start to finish is a remarkable achievement and Chris thoroughly deserves everything that comes with it. His story is one of real resilience and determination, and watching him compete week after week this season has been a privilege. For Chris, Juan and Pierre, earning direct exemptions into Stage Two of DP World Tour Qualifying School is a genuine and life-changing opportunity, and that is exactly what this Tour was built to provide.”
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Wood knows the work is not done. The anxiety that defined so much of his last six years has not disappeared. Morocco, his final win of the MENA Golf Tour season, was by his own admission “a real mental battle”. But he made a 20-yard bunker shot over a ridge on the final hole to seal it.
His four children, Jonah, Lottie, Toby and Kasper, had never seen their father win a professional tournament before this season. They have now had three. His daughter Lottie has his Egypt winners’ medal hanging on her bed.
The big party she is planning – with lots of music and a party dress – will have to wait. Wood has made clear it only happens when he is fully exempt on the DP World Tour.
Wood said: “The MENA Golf Tour gave me the opportunity to progress on to the HotelPlanner Tour and have a full schedule ahead of me. Having won my first event out there, it has offered me more security and the opportunity to look at securing a card back to the DP World Tour this year.
“I’m very aware there is still work to do to achieve this, but genuinely, without the platform of the MENA Golf Tour I wouldn’t be able to look up in that way. I will be forever grateful to the MENA Golf Tour for coming along at a brilliant time for me.”
