Willie Wood getting second crack after strong finish

If Willie Wood knew how he caught lightning in a bottle at last week’s Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona, he probably would do it a lot more often.

As it is, he really has no explanation for his tie for second, his best finish on PGA TOUR Champions since a pair of victories in 2012. Wood shot 13 under to finish four strokes behind winner Mark O’Meara, along with Darren Clarke, Scott McCarron and Kirk Triplett.

“You just never know when you’re gonna start playing well, and I did,” Wood said. “It’s kinda hard to explain. Golf is funny like that. You just don’t know what to expect, good or bad.”

Wood collected $113,900, which was more than he made in his entire 13-event season in 2018 in which he was playing on a newly replaced knee. He says the knee feels perfectly fine now.

The Texas native, who spends part of the year in Phoenix and said he had gotten in plenty of practice, was in contention from the outset with a 7-under 66 that left him one stroke out of the lead. He played in the final group on Saturday and the next-to-last group on Sunday, which he wasn’t sure he had done since 2012 either.

“I definitely had some butterflies, but good butterflies,” Wood said on Tuesday. “It was a little bit uncomfortable, but once I teed off it was fine. That’s where you want to be. It means you’re in contention.”

Wood, 58, is one of the shortest hitters on the PGA TOUR Champions. He hits a lot of fairways, but he struggles to hit greens He was tied for 61st in GIR at Omni Tucson National, which shouldn’t be a recipe for a runner-up finish.

What Wood did better than anyone else in the Cologuard Classic field, though, was get up and down. He missed 23 greens for the week, but he saved par or made birdie 22 times. That’s a ridiculous 95.65 percent in the scrambling category.

He had only one bogey for the week and zero others, which also led the field. Wood tied for sixth in putting average, which also helped him avoid any big numbers on a course that can produce them quickly.

“I putted pretty nicely,” said Wood, who is playing with new Mizuno JPX irons with steel fiber shafts. “The greens were a little bit slow for there so you could get a little bit more aggressive. I was very happy with the way I rolled the ball.”

Wood doesn’t have any status for this year, so he either has to Monday qualify or get sponsor’s exemptions. He said he had tried to get one for the Oasis Championship in Boca Raton, Florida, but went uninvited. He certainly made the most of his sponsor’s exemption into the Cologuard Classic, so with his one start this year he enters the Schwab Cup standings all the way up at No. 20. He’s ahead of such players as Steve Stricker, who is 21st after three starts including a T6 at the Cologuard, and Scott Parel, who is 23rd after four starts including a T11 in the desert.

Wood’s second-place finish automatically puts him into the field for this week’s Hoag Classic at the Newport Beach (California) Country Club.

“It’s a short-term benefit, but I still need to do better to get more status for the rest of this year and next year,” Wood said. “But getting another start is great because I didn’t know when I’d play again after Tucson.”

Now he gets to move straight onto the Hoag Classic feeling more confident about his game than perhaps he has in a while. It also is a course he feels is to his liking, though he played it only twice as a member of the PGA TOUR Champions, in 2013 and ’14. His best finish was a T20.

“I like the way I’m playing,” Wood said. “Newport is not a big-hitter’s course. It’s pretty tight. It’s gonna be cold so the ball won’t be going very far. But I guess it’s gonna be cold for everybody.”

Always take the hot guy when it’s cold.