Last-gasp birdie secures Wood a weekend of golf
The 21-year-old burnt up his front nine at the Munchen Nord course as he went out in 31 strokes, with four birdies, to move up the leaderboard at six-under par.
But, coming home, he bogeyed four holes leaving him perilously close to the cut mark at three-under par, and nine shots behind half-way leader South African Retief Goosen, who is on 12-under par.
His nerves were settled, however, when he rolled in a birdie putt at the par-five ninth hole, his 18th, to see him move to four-under-par and a tie for 36th place.
Portishead's John Morgan failed to make the cut despite shooting a level par round of 72.
The damage had been done on Thursday when he carded a three-over par 75.
Goosen retained the lead by adding a 68 to his opening 64 and is now one shot ahead of Dane Soren Kjeldsen.
Liverpool's Nick Dougherty grabbed two eagles in a 65 which lifted him from 23rd to joint third with Scot David Drysdale.
After Munich, it's less than three weeks before the world's greatest golfers gather at Turnberry for this year's Open. And among their number will be Wood, who last year stunned the golfing world – if not himself – by finishing tied for fifth place and thereby securing a place among this year's golfing elite.
For those whose interest in golf stretches to those four days in July when the battle for the claret jug is joined, Wood isn't a name that would register.
But the 21-year-old, for whom this is his first year on the European Tour, is beginning to forge a name for himself in the game – and further afield.
By early June he achieved what every rookie golfer is looking to achieve in their first year – secure his card for next season.
With just under half a season to go, Wood has amassed enough prize-money which will mean the pressure is off for the rest of the season.
That however is not what drives the former Bristol City schoolboy footballer. His drive – forgive the pun – is so great that the last thing you will hear him say is he is resting on his laurels.
Although he gave himself the last two weeks off, he has come back even more determined than when he left.
Wood said: "I didn't touch a club for the first week because I went down to Cornwall with my girlfriend and just enjoyed a few days relaxing away from the pressures of golf. Then the second week I came back and really did spend a lot of time with my coach, Paul Mitchell, ironing out some problems and I felt ready for the next few weeks.
"We are really into the main part of the season now and with The Open coming up I want to be playing my best and that's what I'm working towards."
Wood hopes to secure a sponsor's invitation to next week's French Open at Le Golf Club International, just outside Paris, before returning to the UK and the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. Then it's all about preparing for the Open where Wood spectacularly made his name last year by finishing tied fifth at Royal Birkdale and securing his place at this year's event.
This week in Munich, Wood started off with a one-under par round of 71 to leave him in joint 63rd place.
He is becoming such a hard task-master on himself that he was really disappointed at his score.
He said: "A low score is definitely on but I just didn't play very well on Thursday and threw a couple of silly shots away which would have left me in a better position.
"It's a bit of a struggle because I didn't hit the ball very well at all on the first day and never really felt in control of the ball.
"After the last month or two, when I was playing quite well, to come back after a couple of weeks lay off and hope to be the same player is difficult but that's the position I'm in now.
"I've never played this course before other than on practice days when it was really wet. Now you can go at a lot of flags because the greens are so soft – so there is a low score out there and a few birdie chances.
"I scored as badly as I could on Thursday and I'm just looking forward to getting out there and meeting the challenge.
"These are the things that you have to work through because you are not going to play well every week so sometimes it's quiet.
"There's just a couple of little things that aren't quite going right at the moment so I still need to work on those."
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