Oliver Wilson was once again left wondering when he will claim his first victory as a professional after the HSBC Champions trophy was snatched from underneath his nose by Sergio Garcia at the second extra hole of a play-off in Shanghai yesterday.

While a win cannot be too far away for Wilson, a player who has grown visibly in the past 12 months, Garcia has an altogether different proposition to consider. Namely, can he overtake Tiger Woods as the world No 1 following a result that moved him above Phil Mickelson and into second place in the world rankings? And that despite the fact that he has yet to win a major championship.

Wilson, who had led Garcia by one stroke as he came to the 18th tee at the Sheshan International Golf Club, was taken into a play-off for the £507,000 first prize after the Spaniard, playing in the group ahead, produced a birdie just when he needed it most to put the pressure on his English Ryder Cup team-mate.

In the event, Wilson did well to sink a difficult par putt to guarantee the play-off and considered himself unlucky when his birdie putt at the second extra hole grazed the cup but stayed above ground. He had already had a 15-foot putt for a victory that came up short the first time around, but Garcia was not about to give him another chance, sinking his own birdie putt of around 12 feet from the fringe of the green to claim his nineteenth win worldwide and his eighth on the European Tour.

Wilson, a 28-year-old son of Mansfield, has now finished second eight times since he joined the tour in 2005, five of them this year alone. This was his second defeat in a play-off in 2008 - the first was to Miguel Angel Jimenez, at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the tour’s flagship event - and his fourth in total. He made history this year by becoming the first player to play in a Ryder Cup match having yet to win, but he looked anything but out of place. After moving to around No 42 in the world rankings, he should also have guaranteed a debut at the Masters in 2009.

A victory, as Garcia was quick to point out, should be a racing certainty. And when it comes, as it surely must, then watch him go. “I’m getting to the stage where second is not good enough,” Wilson said. “There was a time when I was pleased to be finishing there, but that’s gone. It’s about time I took my chance.”

In the meantime, Garcia was left fielding questions about where he goes from here. His first task, he said, was to win a major championship and then to challenge for the top spot in the world. With Woods still recuperating from a serious knee operation, the No 1 spot could be up for grabs around the time of the Masters if he does not play between the new year and April, which looks increasingly unlikely. Among the others chasing him are Padraig Harrington, Mickelson (who finished tied eighth here) and Vijay Singh.

Garcia, meanwhile, was not foolish enough to suggest that Woods was there for the taking. “You’ve got to realise that when we talk about Tiger, we’re looking at the kind of player that you don’t see very often in history,” he said. “There’s very few like him, if there’s ever been one like him.

“Attacking No 1 probably depends a little bit on how much [time] he takes off and if I keep playing well. It’s possible, mainly because he has been injured, but we know that as soon as he comes out, he’s going to play well and he’s going to become quite tough.” On a lighter note, and one that Garcia appreciated, he was asked by a local journalist first if he had plans to get married and second, what did he intend doing with his winnings? “I don’t even have a girlfriend, so how would I get married?,” he joked, while casting a sideways glance towards his girlfriend, Morgan Norman, the daughter of Greg Norman.

Then he admitted that “marriage is definitely something that I’m looking forward to in the future. I’m very happy and very fortunate to be dating a great girl at the moment. I guess it’s happy days for me.” And on the subject of the prize money? “I’m just going to try to put it in a bank that doesn’t go bankrupt,” he said before being gently reminded that it was HSBC’s money that he was pocketing.