Player Profiles: Ian Woosnam

Ian Woosnam

Ian Woosnam, born in Oswesty, England in 1958, lives in Jersey in the Channel Islands with his wife Glendryth and children Daniel, Rebecca and Ami. Beyond golf, his interests include all sports but particularly fishing and snooker.

The Welshman learned the game on the local Llanmynech course, which straddles the Wales-England border and has 15 holes in Wales and three in England. Woosnam worked on the family’s farm for six months after leaving school and credits his stocky, but powerful 165m, 76kg physique to lifting heavy hay bales. In his amateur days, he had a great rivalry going with Sandy Lyle in Shropshire County golf.

Woosnam turned professional in 1976 and used to travel in a camper van and eat tins of beans to save money when an aspiring Tour star. He topped the European Tour money list twice, in 1987 and 1990, and joined golf’s greats when he won the 1991 Masters at Augusta.

He represented the European Team in eight Ryder Cups and in 1993, he became the first European to claim the maximum four points from the two foursomes and two fourball matches, a feat matched only by Sergio Garcia in 2006.  That same year Woosnam captained the European Team to a record-equalling 18 ½ - 9 ½ victory in The Ryder Cup at The K Club in Ireland in 2006. The European Team won all five sessions for the first time in the biennial contest and secured an unprecedented third consecutive victory and Woosnam received the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List in recognition of the feat.

Nicknamed Woosie, Woosers or Wee Welshman, Woosnam was one of the “Big Five” generation of European golfers all born within 12 months of each other and all of whom won majors. His peers included Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle.

In his regular Tour career, Woosnam won 29 times and held the world number one position for 51 weeks. He continued this run when he joined the European Senior Tour in 2008. In a dream rookie season in the senior ranks, he won the Polish Seniors Championship in his third start and the Russian Seniors Open and lifted the John Jacobs Trophy as the leading money winner. He came close to winning it again in 2009, but narrowly lost to Sam Torrance.  Woosnam remained without a title in 2010 however he did tie for eighth in the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie, which was the highlight of his season.

In 2011, he returned to his winning ways at the Berenberg Bank Masters where he shot a final round 66 to collect his fourth Senior Tour title in four years. He ranks fourth on the current rankings after one victory and five top-10 finishes this season, including fourth at the Senior Open de Portugal, fifth at the Handa Cup Senior Masters, sixth at the Senior Masters, seventh at the Scottish Senior Open and eighth at the Senior World Championship.

Woosnam has enjoyed previous success in South Africa when he won the 1987 Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City. He also finished tied for 11th at the Berenberg Bank Masters at Fancourt in 2010. Woosnam won the first of his three BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year awards, which he went on to win in 1990 and 1991 and he was inducted in the Welsh Hall of Fame in 2010.