Wood eyes golf double

Queenslander Chris Wood comes in to this week’s SP Brewery PNG Open fresh off a hard fought win in the AU$110,000 (K261,740) Morobe Open and full of confidence as he aims for a maiden win on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.
The Morobe Open, played last week in Lae, was the biggest win of his career so far in terms of prize money, however, as it is on the PGG Pro-Am Series and not the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, Wood does not receive the crucial exemption for the remainder of the 2017 and all of 2018 Tour seasons.
Faced with a similar field and course layout this week at the SP Brewery PNG Open at the Royal Port Moresby Golf Club, Wood is confident he can replicate last week’s strong play and seal a spot on the PGA Tour of Australasia until the end of 2018.
“I feel I can, I played pretty well last week so hopefully I can continue the form and play well this week,” Wood said.
“It was a bit of a shame it was just the money prize. I’ll still take the cash, don’t get me wrong!
“Hopefully this week I’ll continue to play well and grab that two-year exemption with a win.”
Wood took out the tournament over Michael Wright by two shots, finishing 20-under par with consistent scores of 68, 65, 66 and 65 over the four rounds at the par 71 Lae Golf Club course.
Coincidentally, Wright was the last player to win both the Morobe Open and PNG Open in succession in 2009, a feat Wood will hope to replicate this year.
The 26-year-old, whose 2017 season started with a fourth place at qualifying school and has been tough so far, took the opportunity of a break in the Tour schedule to work on his short game, a strong part of his game in the Morobe Open win.
“Between the tournaments, nothing has really changed in my game, just practiced a bit of putting and chipping which I did well last week so it paid off for me,” Wood said.
“After the Queensland PGA I took about a week or two off golf, then went down to South Australia and played at Murray Bridge just to get a bit of competitive golf in before I came back up here and it’s obviously worked out well.” With four trips to PNG, Wood has grown accustomed to the courses and will rely again on his short game to take him deep into the weekend’s rounds.
“The whole field is pretty strong, they’re all a great bunch of young golfers, some are more experienced than others and anyone can have a good week and play well, hopefully I can come out on top.”
The SP Brewery Papua New Guinea Golf Open will tee off today at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club with the field vying for a prize purse of AU$142,000 (K337,874).
The winner will receive official world golf ranking points and become fully-exempt on to the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia for the remainder of this season.