Chris Wood holds nerve for '˜surreal' Wentworth victory

Chris Wood kisses the trophy after winning the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth by one shot from Swedens Rikard Karlberg.

Wood carded a closing 69 at Wentworth to finish nine under par, a shot ahead of Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg, pictured, whose 65 included a hole-in-one on the second. The 28-year-old from Bristol started the day three shots off the lead held by Australia’s Scott Hend, but fired an eagle and four birdies to race to the turn in 29 and match the tournament record set by Masters champion Danny Willett on Friday. And despite almost letting slip a four-shot lead with a nervy back nine of 40, Wood held on to earn the first prize of £637,000 and move into the automatic qualifying places for Hazeltine, as well as climbing from 54th in the world to a career-high position inside the top 25.

“It’s so hard to put into words at the moment,” said Wood, who led by two shots after 54 holes on his debut in 2010 but shot a closing 77. “I’ve got my best friends, my fiancée, my family here and it is so, so special to win in front of them.

“I came here when I was 12 or 13 to watch with my dad. I was not really thinking I could beat those players one day – I just wanted to be on that stage and so to come down the last with the lead and win the tournament is pretty surreal.

“It’s hard to win, as I’ve proved. I did not look at a leaderboard all day but when you are making lots of birdies on a tricky day you know you are there or thereabouts. On the 18th I had 196 yards to the front and I immediately thought six iron, but my caddie said ‘Do you want to know the situation?’ I said I’ll put it in your hands and he said I’d like you to lay up. It seems silly hitting sand wedge, sand wedge into 18 but as soon as he told me to lay up, I knew probably five was enough. I can rest easy now and enjoy it now.”

Wood admitted the victory of his contemporary Willett in the Masters had provided a “kick up the arse” after a relatively poor start to the season, while the videos played by captain Darren Clarke ahead of the EurAsia Cup win in January gave him “goosebumps”.

“All I wanted this season was to give myself a chance to try and qualify for the Ryder Cup and this has done that,” he added. “There are three or four months where other players can win big events and overtake me, so I have to keep pushing and pushing.”

Karlberg recorded an ace in the opening round of the Volvo China Open at the end of April and fittingly won an XC90 car – which is built near his home city of Gothenburg – from the tournament sponsors.

There was no prize for holing out with a 9-iron from 154 yards at Wentworth, but it did kick-start a front nine of 30 and a brilliant final round.

David Drysdale finished as leading Scot in joint-37th after Greig Hutcheon’s excellent efforts were undone by a closing 82 that dropped him to 63rd.