Near misses inspire Wilson

Oliver Wilson is hoping to end his elusive search for a maiden European Tour victory at the UBS Hong Kong Open this week – but insisted he is able to draw upon the positives from a disappointing number of second-place finishes on the circuit.

The 28-year-old Englishman carded a first-round score of four-under-par 66 at the Hong Kong Golf Club today to sit two strokes behind leaders Richard Sterne and Liang Wen-chong.

Wilson was again left to wonder when a first European Tour win would come after losing out in a play-off to Sergio Garcia at the recent HSBC Champions – that second-place finish was his eighth since he joined the Tour in 2005.

But the Ryder Cup player refused to be too downhearted over that statistic, instead insisting he grows stronger with every tournament.

“Even when you don’t finish second, when you get up there, you learn something,” said Wilson.

“It is great, no matter what happens, if you can get in those last few groups on Sunday, I think you learn something from your game coming down the stretch.

“Obviously, if you are leading you always learn something. I guess that’s why the more you do it, the better you get.

“You take little bits from it all the time and put them together and hopefully one time it will come together and you win by four or five.

“It is all part and parcel of learning and hopefully I can learn a bit more this week.”

A win, however, is a more a matter of when than if with Wilson having been in particularly fine form this year.

His play-off defeat by Garcia in Shanghai was his second of 2008 having lost out to Miguel Angel Jimenez at the BMW PGA Championship.

Jimenez is the defending champion in Hong Kong but endured a disappointing first round today, carding a one-over-par 71.

Consequently, Wilson is arguably one of the form players at the tournament and he believes that takes some of the pressure off this week.

“I think it helps me,” he added. “I think a lot of people know that I’m going to win soon and it might as well be this one.

“It is the first round so it is early days and there is a long way to go. If I can keep plodding my way around the next few days and get in the final few groups on Sunday, I think I’ll have a good chance.”