Portugal a pain in the neck - Wilson

Three weeks after he pulled out of the British Masters with mental exhaustion Ryder Cup debutant Oliver Wilson lasted only eight holes in sunny Portugal on Thursday.

While Swede Robert Karlsson took another step towards the Order of Merit title with an opening three under par 69 - four behind Welshman Stuart Manley - Wilson's hopes of taking a huge leap towards a US Masters debut next April were dashed by a neck injury.

"I woke up with it," said the Mansfield golfer, who had won the eve-of-tournament pro-am. "I went to get out of bed and felt it go."

He added: "I had some physio, took some pills, but when I went to the range to warm up I could only swing it about threequarters at best.

"Normally it loosens up reasonably quickly, but I couldn't reach a couple of holes and it was pointless really." He had already fallen to four over when he decided to call it a day.

Wilson wants to be in the world's top 50 at the end of the year to secure a first appearance at Augusta, but on Monday he slipped to 51st in the new rankings - 0.001 points behind American Brandt Snedeker.

Manley was a Walker Cup hero in 2003, but has had to make four trips to the Tour school since then and is labouring down in 174th on the money list with two events to go.

"I need some money," said the 29-year-old, who has missed the halfway cut in 20 of his 30 events and has to climb into the top 115 to avoid a return to qualifying.

"It's a good time to find form. I've been fantastic in practice, so it must be a mental issue somewhere.

"The greens were a bit bumpy (he was in the penultimate group of the day), but for some reason the putts went in."