Wilson: runner-up again

Our Tour is moving forwards with some great tournaments and a lot of guys are looking over from America and saying they'd like a piece of it. The reason for that is because the American Tour, without Tiger Woods, is rather dull.

Mark Roe
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Yet another good chance passes Oliver Wilson by in his quest to claim that maiden win.

He's had six good chances in 14 months and he's not taken a single one of them. It will have been tough for him to lose the fourth play-off of his career at the HSBC Champions last weekend - although I'm sure the £350,000 runners-up cheque will have softened the blow!

What is clear is that he's a quality golfer, but he should have won by now. He needs to sit down and take a long, hard look at why his game did not stand up over those last few holes.

He showed so much heart and nerve with magnificent single putts at 15, 16, 17 and then a 12-footer for his second putt at 18 to make the play-off in Shanghai. There is no way that you could describe him as a bottler because you do not hole those putts unless you have immense heart.

But he needs to sit down with his coach Peter Cowen and look at some of the shots that weren't so good. The second shot into 16 was a bad shot, as was the chip. Yes, he made a 40-footer for par but - brilliant as it was - you don't want to be having to do that for par. Also at 17 he missed the green before making a good putt and on the second shot to 18 he was lucky he didn't chunk it into the water from a good position - another really poor pitch.

If he wants to go on and be a winner, he needs to take a look at his short game and he needs to take a look at why those things broke down.

But I still maintain that he's a very classy player and I still maintain that at some point he is going to win a golf tournament - and when he does you suspect he might go on to win two or three.

Class

Many people were surprised when I tipped him as an outsider for the Ryder Cup at the start of last year but in the end he deserved and justified his place in the team. He showed all the class he needed at Valhalla and he is a really great ball-striker, who creates an awful lot of opportunities and shoots a lot of good rounds.

I'd also say he hit the golf shot of the year last year - his second shot at Gleneagles with a driver off the deck at 16 when he needed to make a birdie on the last three holes to make the cut. In essence if he made the cut he'd made the Ryder Cup team so that shows he can play big shots under pressure.

So there is no need to take his game to pieces and maybe criticising his short game is a bit hard on him. But I'm doing so because he's a hugely, hugely capable player and he needs to figure out if this is a mental issue or a matter of commitment to the shot under pressure.

Perhaps he doubts himself in these situations because he hasn't done it yet. Perhaps it's a matter of confidence because the more times he finishes second the harder it gets to cross the finishing line.

But if you get in that position over and over again then eventually you'll make it. He has a very consistent golf game that should get him in contention quite often and he needs to remember that winning is hard to do. Not many players win more than once a year.

So if you can't come first then come second. The standard is so high on the European Tour that a second-placed finish is still a great performance.

Let's not forget that Oliver Wilson put up a magnificent performance in the HSBC Champions, he's made a great start in the Race to Dubai and at the end of the day he should be rightly proud of his golf game.

But internally he should be asking himself the pertinent questions that he needs to ask.

Affected

It was interesting to hear Phil Mickelson saying that golf has been badly affected by Tiger Woods' extended absence through injury.

There's no doubt that Tiger Woods is the sport of golf right now. When you have somebody with that supreme gift who, at his best, is head and shoulders above everybody else then of course the game will miss him.

But let me tell you, the PGA Tour misses him more than the European Tour. In an immensely difficult economic climate, our Tour is moving forwards with some great tournaments and a lot of guys are looking over from America and saying they'd like a piece of it.

The reason for that is because the American Tour, without Tiger Woods, is rather dull.

You only have to look at what has happened since the Tour Championship. If you look at the fields, none of the top stars want to play and if you look at who's winning the tournaments it ain't too exciting.

Any Tour around the world needs a Tour Championship and it needs a finale and that's exactly what the European Tour's got in the new Dubai World Championship. Personally I would find it frustrating to have a Tour Championship and then six more weeks that dwindle on with no great interest - other than from the guys that are struggling to keep their cards.

That is something the American Tour needs to confront and needs to worry about because I imagine the TV audiences in the States are quartered when Woods is not playing.

Schedule

In the American financial climate and with no Tiger, I think we are going to see quite a few tournaments disappearing from their schedule. Woods generates sponsorship and interest but we've seen quite clearly over the years that his schedule is built around the majors - and that is going to be the case even more when he comes back from injury.

He will want to guard himself from a reoccurrence of those knee problems and I think he will play an even more limited schedule. Winning major championships is his only goal now and some of the regular PGA Tour tournaments could suffer because of that.

So we've seen a slight shift in the balance of power in terms of the game of golf around the world. In years past the PGA Tour was always the top dog and Europe couldn't compete, largely because of the number of people who play golf in America.

However, the interest generated by the Race to Dubai has shifted things in this direction. I think we will see more of our guys playing in Europe and a couple, including Henrik Stenson, have said they're not going to bother trying to play their 15 events in America this season.

I think that shift could continue over the next few years and we will increasingly see the likes of Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Anthony Kim and Robert Allenby in some really great tournaments on our shores

Here in Europe these are exciting times; Tiger or no Tiger.