Less than a month from being so downcast that he was considering what else he could do for a living, Oliver Wilson rehabilitated his career in one weekend by winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews.
Wilson had fallen from being a Ryder Cup player and England’s next big thing in 2008 and 2009 to as low as 792nd in the world coming into the Dunhill last week.
But with a quality field and the world’s No 1 Rory McIlroy just ahead of him on the great and historic Old Course, the 34-year-old from Mansfield went from his lowest ebb to his first European Tour win in 228 attempts in one bound.
Wilson’s final round 70, with a key birdie on 16 and a crucial par save on 17, gave him a one-shot victory over McIlroy, fellow
Englishman Tommy Fleetwood and Scotland’s Richie Ramsay, who had a two shot lead with three to play.
The winner finished with a 17-under total of 271, and the cheque of nearly £490,000 catapults him from nowhere to 53rd in the Race to Dubai.
The Dunhill has had a habit of acting as a golfer’s rehabilitation unit Lee Westwood 10 years ago and David Howell only last year used it to spring back into prominence from terrible slumps but never as extreme as this.
Three weeks ago at the Kazakhstan Open on the Challenge Tour, with less than £10,000 of winnings this season, Wilson was at his wits’ end after three years of struggles.
The Ryder Cup at Valhalla in 2008, when he played on Nick Faldo’s European team, seemed an age away and he was actively considering what else he might do for a job.
“Didn’t come up with anything much,” he grinned.
“All I was thinking of was trying to get to the Challenge Tour final, and then Q School, again.
“Johan Rupert was kind enough to give me an invitation to play here, so obviously the thought was, top field, great courses, it’ll be better than Challenge Tour at least.
“Now to be sitting here with this trophy, thinking about what tournaments this gets me in, knowing that I can plan for the future I still can’t quite get my head around it.”
Starting with a three-shot lead, Wilson only got three hours of sleep on Saturday night, mulling over the day ahead in his mind, “winning the tournament at least three times in my head”.
“My wife Lauren called to say she was coming up and I said `Seriously, is that a good idea? You know my history’. But it was so cool to come off the final green and see her there.”