Golfer Chris Wood on the Open, staying grounded and home comforts

Chris Wood's mum cooked him two roast dinners at the house they rented with some of the rest of the family at Turnberry. It's home comforts like this that the 21-year-old from Nailsea misses when he is playing in golf tournaments across the world.

The former Backwell School pupil finished tied for third position at the Open championship on Sunday, receiving a pay cheque of £255,000. Not bad for four days' work, hitting 279 shots around a golf course that hugs Scotland's rugged west coast.

Wood drove himself back from Scotland on Sunday evening, arriving back in Bristol at 2am yesterday morning. He will not touch his golf clubs until Saturday when practice recommences for his next tournament in the Czech Republic.

He may be flying all over the world, but he says that he hasn't changed much from the fresh-faced youngster who picked up his first golf club at home in Nailsea, and neither has he changed much from the unknown amateur who 12 months ago came fifth at the 2008 Open at Royal Birkdale.

His first golfing memory is as a three-year-old hitting his sister in the nose with a golf club in the back garden, but he soon progressed to playing with his dad, Richard, at Long Ashton Golf Club, where his photograph is now on a hand pumps in the clubhouse bar.

"Hopefully I haven't changed that much," Wood says, sipping a blackcurrant cordial in the Vittoria pub on Whiteladies Road where he looks every inch the golfer in a polo shirt with his sponsors' names on.

"I have definitely kept my feet firmly on the ground. That's down to my family. They are very grounded people. I have got good friends around me too.

"And it's still golf. I'm playing all over the world, like I did as an amateur, there's just a bit more pressure on it now, but I think as a pro I've settled into it quite nicely.

"Nothing is going to stop me. I've got the support around me that I need and appreciate so much. I couldn't do it without the people I've got around me.

"The best thing about being a professional golfer is that I'm doing something that I love. I have played golf for 12 years, dreaming of becoming a European tour pro, and here I am.

"I see a lot of my friends who are in jobs, they come home on a Friday night and they're moaning a little bit, and on the Sunday I'm jetting off to Dubai or somewhere like that, doing something that I absolutely love.

"I love playing in front of crowds. I love the excitement, I love the pressure, I love everything about golf, competing and winning tournaments."

At Turnberry, Wood and his family – dad Richard, mum Sara, sister Abbi, aunt Gill and girlfriend Bethany – hired a house near the course where they stayed during the tournament.

Also there were coach Paul Mitchell from Bristol & Clifton and personal trainer Andrew Wadsworth. Wood said that he appreciated the home comforts, especially when his mum twice cooked them all a roast dinner.

He normally travels to tournaments alone, unlike other golfers who travel with an entourage of coaches. Mitchell and Wadsworth both live in Bristol, but he says that they are always on the other end of the phone if he needs them.

"It would be quite expensive I think taking them everywhere with me.

"My parents, my friends and my girlfriend are so important. I have realised that more since I have turned pro, having your friends around when you're home and trying to make time for them. I sacrificed so much to get where I am today, I have worked as hard I possibly could and I think that I deserve everything that I get.

"But I missed out on a lot growing up. I wasn't really at school much. I never really allowed myself to go out drinking with my friends when we were teenagers. I couldn't afford to do it. I stayed in, went to bed and got up early to practice the next day.

"Now I can find a bit of a balance. I can afford to take a couple of weeks off here and there, spend some time with my friends, take them out. But I've worked hard for it."

Wood says that he is still not recognised that much, even with what is turning into quite a distinctive 'look', 6ft 5ins with distinctive gravity-defying blond hair and several days of stubble.

"But I quite like it when I'm recognised because it means that I'm doing well. It means that I've been successful and achieving what I want. You can't see it as a bad thing at all, you've got to enjoy it.

"I've had a bit of stick about the hair recently, especially from commentators on Sky and the bbc.co.uk/" target=_blank rel=nofollow>BBC. It's become a bit of a talking point, so it might have to stay.

"My hair is a bit of an image thing I suppose. Every player has got their little trademarks. I just wake up and it looks this good, well, maybe after 10 seconds in the mirror."

Wood and his hair made quite a name for themselves at the Open this year. At Royal Birkdale in 2008, he finished fifth, but being an amateur, he couldn't take any prize money back home to Nailsea.

Fast forward 12 months to the 2009 Open championship at Turnberry, and the expectation was higher because the former amateur champion is currently in his first year as a professional. When he sunk his putt on the 18th green on Sunday afternoon, he became leader in the clubhouse.

He may have lost that lead to the eventual winner Stewart Cink and veteran Tom Watson, but it is the mark of the man that speaking yesterday, just over 24 hours since finishing his last round, he was still kicking himself for not winning the most prestigious tournament in golf.

"I played my normal game and I'm extremely disappointed not to have won. It's pretty hard to take. I tried my best with every shot, it just wasn't meant to be.

"I'll learn from certain things though. I'm always learning and I feel like I'm always improving. If you don't learn from your mistakes, you'll do them again."

During his rookie year, Wood has already achieved the two goals he set himself when he turned professional: to break into the world top-100 (he is currently 59th), and to qualify for the end-of-season European Tour's Race to Dubai event.

After next's week tournament in the Czech Republic, he will return home to Bristol for a few days before flying to America to compete in the US PGA Championships, the last major of the year.

Between now and the next tournament, Wood will receive physiotherapy on his wrist which he injured on Sunday after finding a particularly tough lie in the rough.

He also plans to take his girlfriend on a short break, to celebrate her graduation from Reading University.