Oliver

Wilson

The Scot fired out of the gate with a ’63' this week and didn’t let his foot off the gas with rounds of 67-68-66 to finish things off in style. He swallowed just three bogeys all week and none of those came on Sunday down the stretch. “I feel quite good. Obviously a little bit sad that I didn’t win but I definitely didn’t lose it.” Ferguson climbs from 17th to 11th in the DP World Tour Rankings as his breakout season continues.

The 41-year entered the week just 156th in the DP World Tour Rankings but he felt much better about his game than the results suggested. “I was so confident. I knew I could get the job done. Everything I’ve done to this point to rebuild my game, I knew I could do it... I love this place. I’ve done well here before. My game has been trending in the right direction. There’s been a lot of good stuff this year, I just haven’t been able to put it all together.” He certainly flipped that script in Denmark this week, carding 25 birdies and an eagle to erase a six-pack of blemishes. He was either clutch or lucky down the stretch, depending on how you view things. Wilson rolled in a pair of birdie bombs from outside of 60 feet on his homeward nine today, clipping Eewn Ferguson by one shot when all was said and done. Wilson jumps to 28th in the DP World Tour Rankings with this finish.

The Englishman is probably not best pleased to find himself needing to become acquainted with the new venue at Education City GC this week. Last year he was T2 at the previous venue and he had a decent bank of form there, going back to a T20 in 2008, T5 in 2010 and T12 in 2011. That T2 last year came amid a fine run of form that was kicked off by a win on the Challenge Tour in late 2018. He made five top tens early in the 2019 ET season and was flying high for the first time in a long while. But after T19 in the Irish Open he didn’t make another top 20 in his final 11 starts and the beginning of 2020 has been no better. He was T61 in the Dunhill Championship and has followed it with four missed cuts in the desert. One ray of hope? One of his favorite hotels on the schedule is in Doha – but can he still stay there for this week’s new course?!

This is the Englishman’s eighth start at Leopard Creek and he’s 4-for-7 overall with another top 25 in 2007. His fifth place 12 months ago helped him go on to finish 66th on last season’s Race to Dubai, his highest placing for five years. “The 2019 season went reasonably well, so I’m looking forward to the new season, and I hope I get a good couple of tournaments in before Christmas,” said Wilson ahead of the event. “This is one of my favourites anywhere in the world. It’s a phenomenal place, one that I’ve been in love with for the last 15 years since I first came down here. If I play decent, I’ll get into contention. It’s kind of that simple. My game is improving all the time, so if I can play how I have been then I feel confident.” Wilson has cooled off over the last few months although his tied 30th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa on his last start promised to be much better. He was fourth with 18 holes to play but slumped to a closing 82.

What a superb lap from the Englishman at the Gary Player CC in Sun City, one that re-establishes him as a comeback performer this season. He made two bogeys, but on this tough course that is often inevitable. What mattered was that he poured on the birdies. The errors came at the 11th and 16th holes, the par breakers at the second, seventh, ninth, tenth, 14th, 15th and 17th. He is seeking a fifth top five of the season and a first win since the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which in itself was a huge comeback win. “I’m going to keep building, keep doing what I’m doing, keep hitting fairways,” he said afterward and then added, of his career: “It’s been up and down, extreme highs and extreme lows. It gives you perspective. I’ve got a son, I realize golf isn’t that important. It’s just a game.”

The Englishman’s record in South Africa rather reflects his career everywhere. Between 2004 and 2011 he played there nine times, missed just one cut and had a best of T2 in the 2007 South African Open. He then went 2-for-10 with the exception just T79 and T40. But this year he has been reinvigorated, claiming T3 in the South African Open and T5 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship. That said, despite a largely strong season, he is limping to the finish line. He is on a run of 5-for-10, with just two top 50s – at T48 in the European Masters and T34 in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

That’s the Englishman’s lowest lap in six starts at Munchen Nord-Eichenried where he’s misses three of his previous five cuts. He returned today having racked up three top tens in his last six European Tour starts, a run which included a second place at March’s Qatar Masters. Also fourth in Denmark two starts ago, Wilson splashed red at two of his first three holes today (11 and 12) after starting at No. 10 and wiped out his lone bogey of the round at 15 with another birdie double at 16 and 17. On the Munich venue’s front nine, he again produced back-to-back circles, this time at 4 and 5, before parring his way home. Wilson birdied just one of the par 5s so may feel he can go lower as the week goes on.

Between 2007 and 2010 Wilson didn’t finished outside the seasonal rankings top 50 and made 22 top tens. Since then only in 2014 has he been ranked better than 130th, when winning the Dunhill Links Championship. That’s how remarkable it is that he currently sits 35th in the Race to Dubai. His T2 in the Qatar Masters helped, as have recently finishing T8 at the British Masters and T4 at the Made in Denmark. That’s the good news. The bad is that he’s always struggled on this Munich course. He missed cuts in 2005, 2006 and 2015, was T66 in 2011 and his T18 in 2017 included a round three 75.

Wilson has found Himmerland’s outward half a struggle all week. He ground out nine pars in his opening 68 and bogeyed three of the last four to play it in 2-over 38 in Friday’s 1-under 70. Today, he fared even worse after six pars and three bogeys (2, 3 and 7). Back at even-par for the tournament, Wilson needed a big finish and he found one. He started his move by ticking 11 and 12 before firing eagle-birdie-birdie (2-3-2) at 13, 14 and 15. With Wiesberger bogeying the last, it means Wilson is only three adrift. A solid front nine on Sunday and he could be in with a great chance of a first European Tour win since his only victory in 2014. Two triumphs on the Challenge Tour last year will likely give him some added confidence.

The Englishman made a swift start, coped with a becalmed middle of the round, and then closed in assured style for the sixth European Tour third round lead of his career (curiously all of them solo; he is 1-for-5). He birdied 2 and 4, followed a bogey at 5 with nine straight pars, and then ticked 15 and 18, the latter courtesy of a smart lag putt from just off the back of the green. As he chases a second European Tour win he’ll be emboldened that none of the eight players within two shots of him currently owns a win at this level. Should the 38-year-old complete the W it would re-iterate one of the odder career records at the top level. He collected 26 top tens in his first 165 starts on the European Tour without winning, yet victory tomorrow would be a second in his last 139 starts and only a fifth top five.