Oliver's sad twist

Oliver Wilson helps secure a vital point on Friday morning but is left out for the fourballs.

Oliver Wilson
Fergus Bisset
By Fergus Bisset
published

I’m feeling pretty sorry for Oliver Wilson at the moment. He just put on a superb debut performance alongside Henrik Stenson to beat the star US pairing of Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim by 2&1 in the Friday morning fourballs. After not being selected to play at all on Thursday, the young man from Mansfield was under pretty enormous pressure to perform.

Stenson and he went four down through six holes and almost everybody wrote the point off. But the pair battled back admirably and, aided by a back nine meltdown from Mickelson and Kim, the European duo won it on the 17th when Wilson holed a superb birdie putt.

What a moment it was for the rookie and what a high he must have been on as he walked off the course to cheers of “Europe, Europe.” Imagine, then, how gutted he must be feeling this afternoon to not be one of the eight Europeans out on the course. The poor lad has played in just one of the four sessions so far, but he defeated the World number 2 and World number 10 to be the only European with a 100% record.

Let’s just hope the Englishman takes thoughts of his foursomes performance this morning rather than the lack of faith Faldo has shown in him, into tomorrow’s crucial singles matches.

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly. 

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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