Mizuno have announced that staff professional, Chris Wood, will become playing editor of Golf Monthly, the world’s oldest golf magazine, for a year from April 2017
Wood, has signed to become playing editor of Golf Monthly and, as part of the deal, the three-time tour winner and 2016 Ryder Cup player will write a monthly column, sharing his insights and opinions about life on tour and the game in general, and will also feature prominently in other sections of the magazine throughout the year, including the instruction pages for which his maiden contribution was recently shot at his home club of Long Ashton in Bristol.
“I’m really looking forward to the coming year, and the chance to share my thoughts with Golf Monthly readers about my life as a tour golfer and much more,” Wood said. “I’ve got a few ideas about topics I’d like to cover, and no doubt other things worthy of comment will crop up as the year progresses.”
“We’re delighted to have a player of Chris’ calibre on-board as playing editor,” said Golf Monthly editor, Michael Harris. “Chris has achieved a huge amount in his nine years to date as a professional, and has played and won on some of the game’s biggest stages. Our readers will always remember his early Open Championship exploits in 2008 and 2009, as well as his more recent achievements at Wentworth and Hazeltine. He is one of the most popular and likable players out there, and we know he will have much to say in his new column.”
The popular Englishman has represented Mizuno since 2010 on the European Tour after first coming to the golfing public’s attention in the 2008 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, where he finished T5th as an amateur to comfortably claim the Silver Medal. He subsequently turned pro, then contended strongly again in the 2009 Open at Turnberry, eventually finishing T3rd, having stood in the final fairway with a genuine chance of victory.
He claimed the Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award that year, and has since gone on to win three times on the European Tour, eagling the final hole to claim the 2013 Qatar Masters, before adding the 2015 Lyoness Open and then the 2016 BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event of the European Tour. That victory paved the way to a Ryder Cup debut later that year as part of Team Europe at Hazeltine, where he claimed his first Ryder Cup point in the Saturday foursomes. Wood currently carries the new JPX900 metal woods, a split bag of MP-5 and MP-25 irons along with T7 wedges in the famous blue and white staff colours of his Mizuno bag.
