Anxiety gripped Oliver Wilson as he sat and waited.
The Englishman, now an Augusta resident, traveled the world in 2004. Russia. Germany. Denmark. Italy. England. Spain. Panama. Egypt.
This October afternoon, he grabbed a chair at a golf course in Bordeaux, France. His future was no longer in his hands.
After a full season on the Challenge Tour, the European equivalent of the PGA Tour's Nationwide Tour, Wilson entered the final tournament No. 15 on the money list, knowing only the top 15 players received European Tour cards.
After two solid rounds, Wilson faltered with a third-round 75. His dream of playing high-level golf fell into jeopardy. He didn't sleep well that night.
Wilson came back with a final-round 67. Still, his competition remained on the course.
"I knew if I played well, I was fine," he said. "When I got finished, I still didn't know. The guys playing well were still behind me."
Wilson held on to earn his promotion to the next level.
In less than two years, the 24-year-old Wilson has taken the leap from college golf to the European Tour.
These days, Wilson of Mansfield, England, nearly has the world on a string. He owns a house adjacent to Jones Creek Golf Club. He dates one of the best players on the Augusta State women's golf team. He has sponsorship deals with Callaway Golf (clubs, balls, bag and caps) and Polo (clothing). And he travels to exotic locations for golf tournaments.
If only his swing was fixed. After losing three of four matches in the 2003 Palmer Cup, a prestigious team match-play event for amateurs, Wilson decided to seek help for his inconsistency off the tee.
He found fellow Englishman Mitchell Spearman, a highly-regarded swing coach in New York. The two have worked together the past year-and-a-half to help Wilson achieve a reliable, compact swing.
"If you want to go out and make any money on the professional level you've got to be able to shoot 65," Wilson said. "You can't do that when you're hacking it around."
Wilson has no timetable for getting his new swing down. He hopes to be close when he plays in the South African Open, on Jan. 20-23.
"I know it won't be grooved," he said. "Hopefully, by the end of year I'll have played well and kept my card.
"Next year, I want to go out and just play."
Wilson went out and played well during his collegiate days. At Augusta State, he tied a school record for most career tournament victories (four) and became the first three-time All-American in school history. He also posted the school's second-best career stroke average (72.05) .
"It was a great time," Wilson said. "I miss it. I wish I would've been able to do a little better."
In 2002-03, his senior season, Wilson won three tournaments and was named first-team All-American. His crowning moment came when he won his second Augusta State Invitational. Against a star-studded field in the 2003 event, Wilson drained a 14-foot eagle putt on the final hole for a two-shot victory over Clemson's D.J. Trahan.
Now, Trahan heads to the PGA Tour as a rookie. And Wilson heads overseas with a set of lofty goals. He wants to finish in the top 60 on the Order of Merit and become the tour's rookie of the year.
"I'm going to have to play well," he said. "But I'm more than capable of doing that."
In two early season tournaments - the European Tour began the 2005 schedule with two events in December - Wilson finished tied for 132nd and tied for 68th.
"It's going to be a confidence thing," said Robert Duck, a former Augusta State golfer and Wilson's agent. "Once he knows he should be out there he'll be fine."
Wilson, whose caddie Richard Hill is a tour veteran, plans to play a full schedule of about 30 tournaments. After the South African Open, he travels to events in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Dubai and Qatar the next six weeks.
"I'm racking up a quite a few (frequent flier miles)," Wilson said. "My air time this year has been ridiculous."
In late March, he plans to take three weeks to a month off. He will return to Augusta and split time between golf and his girlfriend. For the past three years, Wilson and Lauren Smith of Fort Mill, S.C., a Lady Jaguar senior red-shirting this season, have been involved in a long-distance relationship.
"It's hard," Wilson said. "And I'm away a lot. When I'm back, I try to spend as much time with her. She's really focused on school and golf."
Wilson's focus since turning professional after the Palmer Cup has been working on his golf game and exercising. He hits several buckets of balls a day and hits the gym.
Around the Augusta area, Wilson plays a variety of courses and practices at Jones Creek and Forest Hills Golf Club. This past week, he played 18 holes at Augusta Country Club - a mere wedge shot from Augusta National Golf Club, the course he really wants to play.
But first, he has to travel the world and back.
"I want to come back and play in the Masters (Tournament)," he said. "The sooner the better. It'd kind of be like playing in college in front of the local crowd, except on a bigger stage.
"Who's going to be the first Augusta State golfer to play in the Masters? I want to be the first one."
Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.
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