WILSON SHOWS HE HAS THE GAMBLER'S INSTINCT // 12th March 2007

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Oliver Wilson stood on the tee of the short 17th at the Blue Canyon Country Club yesterday in an agony of indecision. In contention for the biggest prize of his life, the £208,330 for the winner of the Johnnie Walker Classic in Phuket, Thailand, he simply could not 'see' the shot. "There was no way I could visualise getting the ball close," the former Walker Cup golfer said, "so I went ahead and hit it anyway." The result was disastrous. Trying to cut the ball in to the pin, he sliced it over a 30ft cliff and when last seen it was heading for a lake. Oliver, it seemed, had asked for too much. But when he got there, there was good news and bad news. The good was that he could see his ball; the bad that it was in a malevolent mixture of mud and water and, for good measure, there was an old tin can lying behind his ball. Now he had to make decisions. Should he opt for safety and take a penalty drop, meaning an almost certain double bogey, or go for broke and give the ball a belt? He decided on the latter, salvaged a near-miraculous four, and after three rounds is one behind the leader, Richard Sterne, of South Africa, who is 13-under on 203. A further stroke behind is another young South African, one whom the sponsors must be thankful is not actually leading the event. A Johnnie Walker tournament would not look good with Anton Haig at the head of affairs. Sterne is five ahead of the nearest of the tournament's superstars, Retief Goosen, who admitted that a patchy 72 meant that "the tournament is pretty much gone for me". Ernie Els managed a 67 but is still seven behind, while Adam Scott trails by 10. A flushed Colin Montgomerie, seven under on 209 after three days in high heat and humidity, deflected requests for a chat with the words: "I'm knackered, bloody knackered." Not as knackered as Brett Rumford's caddie, Max Cunningham, though. He had to leave the course at the 14th on Friday and was promptly wrapped in ice for an hour. "I've never not completed a round in 27 years on tour," the resilient Kiwi said, "but those conditions were brutal." Wilson, slim and fit, weathered them better than most, although in the near-impossible conditions of the second round he consumed 12 half-litre bottles of water, two of Gatorade and one of Red Bull. "And I didn't come close to having to go to the loo," he added. The Mansfield man was in an extremely talented group of Walker Cup players to emerge around the same time, but some - Luke Donald (10th in the world rankings), Paul Casey (14th), Justin Rose (36th) - have gone on to greater things. Wilson is only 365th in the list despite having lost a play-off to Casey for the Volvo China Open last year, but believes a breakthrough is imminent. "Most people here can play," he said, "but it's how your head is that counts. When I first came out I tried so hard because I wanted to make it happen so quickly. But you learn to relax and I'm getting more comfortable with the situations I find myself in." At the 17th, for instance, he took a lob wedge and "just committed to hitting it hard". He added: "It could have caught the bank, rolled back past me and into the water." Instead he is still in with a great chance of his first win on the European Tour. To return to the main News page click here