OPEN Championship hero Chris Wood has pledged not to do a Justin Rose for the second time in a week and turn pro off the back of a top five finish in the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

The 20-year-old from Bristol could not quite eclipse the performance of a 17-year-old Rose 10 years ago when he chipped in at the last to finish in a tie for fourth.

Chris Wood, who has been using StrokeAverage.com to analyse his stats and performance since breaking into England amateur set up, managed to chip in for a birdie at the 18th during his third round.

And after a superb battling back nine he finished birdie, par to land the Silver Medal at the Open Championship.

Justin Rose turned pro within a matter of hours of his triumph in the 1998 Open Championship on the Lancashire golf links, having already become the youngest player to appear in the Walker Cup against America the summer before, having won the Carris Trophy in the English Amateur Under 18 Championship when he was just 15.

But professional golf turned sour immediately for South Africa-born Rose, who wilted under the pressure of 22 successive missed cuts in European and Challenge Tour events.

Chris Wood, who won the Russian Amateur Championship earning him an invite into the European Tour’s Russian Open last summer, dismissed any such notion of turning pro immediately.

The Gloucestershire county golfer said before the tournament that his goal was to play in next year’s Walker Cup in America, which will be played at Pennsylvania’s famous Merion, which has hosted four US Opens and five US Amateur Championships.

Chris Wood had stormed into contention on the front nine – having pledged that he was going out to win the Claret Jug not just the Silver Medal on Sunday morning, and was lying in third place just one shot off the lead at the turn before three successive bogeys from the 10th dropped him down the leaderboard.

An ecstatic Chris Wood said: “I haven't had any time to think about anything so far,” when asked about his thoughts on his future in the game.

“It’s been the best week of my life. I didn’t feel any pressure at all really, apart from the first tee,” he added.

“I tried to play one shot at a time, which is obviously a lot harder to do. I was just looking at leaderboards because I was just enjoying it.”

His next big date is the English Amateur Championship, which gets underway at the home of the English Golf Union, at Woodhall Spa Golf Club, in Lincolnshire – rated the best inland golf course in the country - from July 28-August 2.

Last year Chris Wood shared the West of England Amateur Strokeplay title at Saunton with David Horsey, who has won twice already this season on the Challenge Tour after turning pro last year and earning a card at the Qualifying School.

Chris Wood claimed the English Golf Union Order of Merit in 2007 – as Justin Rose was being crowned Europe’s number one in the professional ranks - thanks to those two victories and a quarter final place in the British Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham, losing to eventual champion Drew Weaver, the Virginia Tech student.

And this season Chris Wood has already added the Welsh Amateur Strokeplay to his bulging trophy cabinet, where now the R&A’s Silver Medal will take pride of place.

Golf article end.