Interview: Oliver Wilson, golfer

OK, so he hasn’t actually won on the European Tour, but as many as nine second-place finishes are testimony to the former Walker Cup player’s pedigree. Speaking of which, Wilson has completed the set when it comes to teams. Twice he has represented Great Britain & Ireland in the Seve Trophy and in 2008 he played for Europe in the Ryder Cup.

All of which makes his current position all the more astounding. After a 2011 season dogged by loss of form, injury and illness, Wilson finds himself without a tour card. Last year he missed 16 cuts in 31 events, finished 130th in the Race to Dubai and picked up only ¤199,004 along the way – a far cry from the three-year period from the start of 2007, during which the Mansfield native earned over ¤4 million. Such is the sometimes tenuous hold even the seemingly well established have in the world of competitive sport.

Sometimes though, the numbers don’t tell the full story. And that is certainly true in Wilson’s case. His 2011 season was a year when, if something could go wrong, it duly did.

“I didn’t go from where I was to where I am now without it being a combination of different things,” he admits. “If it was only one thing I’d have to be really stupid to be sitting here talking about it. It was a combination of being ill – and not really knowing it for long enough – and overdoing things when I wasn’t playing well. Looking back, I was too often practising hard when I should have been taking a break.

“The strange thing was that my form would come and go really quickly. Some days I’d rip it. Then the next I’d be awful. So the swing was a problem. And my short game got worse and worse. What had been my strength became another problem. Towards the end of the year I was terrible on and around the greens.

“I can trace my problems back to their very beginnings. It was almost two years ago during the World Golf Championship at Doral in Florida. I putted really badly that week after making a change to my stroke. And it ate its way through the rest of my game. As I went on, I just put more and more pressure on myself.”

Perhaps the biggest key to Wilson’s malaise was the decline in his short game. Never the most potent ball striker, an innate ability to consistently turn three shots into two has been the basis of his success. “I’ve never really been happy with my swing,” he continues. “You can see it when I’m on the course. I never look comfortable. Even when I’m playing well, it never looks natural. But that’s how I’ve always played. It’s a blessing in that it teaches you how to score. But at some stage you have to sort the problem.”

As Wilson’s struggles continued over the course of last summer he just as quickly became the unfortunate subject of tour gossip, not all of it well meaning.

“It has been hard on my ego,” he shrugs. “It took a big battering. It’s hard to convince yourself you are still the same player when the results show clearly that you are not. I was embarrassed last year, especially when I was struggling off the tee. I was playing with guys and knowing what they were thinking. People were treating me differently too. I didn’t like that, even if I can understand it.

“The worst part was having people talking shit behind my back around the time of Dubai last December. Some apparently felt I shouldn’t get any starts because I didn’t go to the tour school. That’s fine, but if they had taken the time to find out exactly what had been going on with me, they may have felt differently. Rumours on this tour are amazing. Something gets said and 15 minutes later the story is completely different.”

In truth, Wilson’s decision not to undergo the six-round marathon that is the tour school last December had more to do with his health than his form. Diagnosed last May with a stomach ulcer, he was also found to be carrying with him two parasites of unknown origin – “one of them isn’t even found in humans, which was a bit disturbing”. So it was that, by the time he had flogged himself through Asia over the last month or so of the season, he simply had nothing left to give.

“I wore myself out at the end of last year,” he confirms. “I just about had enough energy to play, but I couldn’t prepare properly. That’s no way to succeed on tour. But early on I fell into the trap of forcing things. The rest of the season was one long struggle.

“In fact, I really shouldn’t have gone to the Far East at all. My doctor advised me not to. He actually called to tell me to get back immediately. I told him it wasn’t that easy and I’d be home in a month. He felt I was making a mistake, but I did it anyway.

“The thing that irritates me the most about last year is that I was silly. I didn’t listen to myself. I have enough experience to know you can’t play at this level feeling the way I was. I knew what I should do – take time off and get sorted – but I didn’t do it. That’s the biggest reason I am where I am. I maybe could have sneaked by if my swing had been technically sound. But it wasn’t.”

Ironically, after a month-long rehabilitation over the holidays and some hard work on the range with new coach, York-based Graham Walker, Wilson feels ready to compete again, both physically and technically. And, in three tournaments so far this year, he has made the cut in two, albeit without seriously threatening a leaderboard.

A bigger problem, however, is his newfound and lowly status on tour. From category 12 he is unlikely to get more than 12-14 starts over the course of the coming season. Especially in the bigger events, he will therefore be dependent on invitations from tournament sponsors.

“It’s not ideal,” he acknowledges. “But it is the position I am in and I have to deal with it. Fortunately, I feel that, although I am in this position, my game really isn’t. It was last year. But now I feel like my game is good enough to win a tournament. The bad thing, of course, is that I’m not going to get to play much in the next two months or so.

“Without the knowledge that I’m going to be playing next week or the week after, I can’t play myself into form. So I have to prepare properly. When I get to an event I’ve got to be as ready as I can be. I have to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way.”

The key will be the number of invitations he garners along the way. With, say, 20 starts it is hard to imagine such a talented individual not making enough cash to regain his card. He certainly thinks he can do it. The opening headline on his website makes that clear: “I’ll be back.” Let’s hope so.