Round 4: RBC Canadian Open

Dean Wilson didn’t mince words. He’s disappointed. Disappointed he didn’t win the tournament his BYU teammate, Mike Weir, still hasn’t won. The two teammates now have something else in common: a second place finish in the RBC Canadian Open, and it doesn’t feel very good.

Wilson, who had a four-shot lead after 54 holes, needed a win — and a win only — to get the card back he lost after the 2009 season. Just like that, his card was gone, relegated to writing sponsor exemption requests and relying on a past champion status to get into events. So far, he’s played nine of them, including this week, when RBC Canadian Open officials gave him a coveted sponsor exemption spot.

And it nearly paid off in a huge way.

Wilson led at one point Sunday by five, but he couldn’t stop Carl Pettersson, who was in the midst of a birdie binge just as Wilson missed the green on the short par-4 14th. Wilson ended up bogeying the hole, while Pettersson birdied it for his fifth birdie in sixth holes. His lead was gone.

"I just didn’t execute," Wilson said about the shot on No. 14. "I caught that ball a little thin and it rolled over the green, and I paid the price."

That price ended up being a punched ticket to the SBS Championship and the Sony Open Hawaii, the two events that kick off the season that just happen to be held in his home state. Along with a two-year PGA TOUR exemption.

But all is not lost. Wilson’s solo second — he secured it with two gritty pars on the 71st and 72nd holes — puts him at 110th on the money list and in good shape to get his card back, which is a lot more than he had when he started the week.

"It’s tough, you know. Like I said, if you told me at the beginning of the week I could have second by myself, I would have taken it skipping," Wilson said. "And I’m happy with moving up on the money list, moving up on the FedExCup point list. Hopefully I’m up high enough, maybe I can get in some FedExCup events, the first one maybe. I don’t know where it puts me, but I need to move up a little bit to assure my card so I don’t have to go to TOUR school next year."

Another good thing: Wilson was an alternate for this week’s Greenbrier Classic. No more. He’s in. But he knows he is going to have to grind hard to make up for what could have been on Sunday.

"I’m not going to get in very many tournaments from here on out," Wilson said. "I’ll get in next week, and we’ll see, maybe I can get another sponsor invite here and there, but I’m going to have to make a few more bucks to get into the top 125."