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Wood eyes Ryder Cup, Olympic teams

Wentworth - England's Chris Wood is eyeing a spot in the Ryder Cup and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after his win in the European PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday.

Wood put himself in the frame for a place in the European team, under Darren Clarke at Hazeltine, with his one million euro ($1.11 million) prize money, but still has to overtake one of Danny Willett and Justin Rose in the world rankings to make the Great Britain team for Rio.

The Wentworth victory will push Wood into the top 25, but Willett was ninth and Rose 10th the week before the event.

There is an added complication – Wood is getting married the week after the Olympics and his stag party is due to take place when the golf is on in Brazil.

"My stag do is the week of the Olympics now," the 28-year-old told reporters after his win. "You could probably postpone that but not the wedding, which is the week after.

"I had sort of put it in my head that Justin and Dan were locked in, really. If that changes, then great. We can always have a stag do in Rio, can't we?

"I'm still a little bit off the pace. They are both top 10 in the world. I'll need to still show some really good results in the next couple of months to give myself a chance at pushing one of those two out."

Wood had a chance of winning this tournament back in 2010 when he was in front going into the last round, only for Simon Khan to win after Wood had shot a final-round 77.

And the player from Bristol claims the experience of throwing that away helped him finally land the biggest title of his career.

He added: "I was leading by two going into the last day, and I think the whole thing got the better of me. Even I can remember back that day, that was a Ryder Cup year. I was sat at breakfast thinking, oh my God, if I win this, I might make The Ryder Cup.

"Those sort of thoughts aren't what you want four hours before you tee off. You can't ignore the fact that if you win an event like this, it is going to put you in the frame. But it's being able to manage those shots, and six years on, I'm older and more experienced; I can do that."

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