Matteo Manassero has always been one of the more-affable players in golf and now after far too many years in virtual golfing oblivion what a sheer delight it is to report the 30-year-old Italian is officially returning to the DP World Tour.
It’s been a long four-year absence for a player who turned pro 13-years ago, wasting little time in breaking all sorts of Tour records, to the bitter blow of losing his Tour card in 2019. Now after the final round of the season-ending Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final in Majorca, Manassero has easily locked-in a top-21 season money-list finish to regain his main Tour card for the up-coming ’24 season.
Manassero arrived on the famed Spanish holiday island lying eighth on the Road to Majorca money-list and with the leading 21 to earn full 2024 main tour membership.
For a third time this year, the golfing gods were smiling on ‘Manny’, and despite four no-frill rounds of 76, 71, 76 and 70 for a five-over-par tally, his share of 19th on this week’s host Club de Golf Alcanada course was easily good enough to end the season ninth on the money list and official confirmation of his return to the DP World Tour.
And Manassero did so in style with his closing two-under and bogey-free last round capped by holing a near 20-footer for birdie at the 72nd hole.
His return now to the main tour makes for one of the good golfing news stories of the 2023 golfing year.
“It was a really good day today. It was a more relaxed week for me than others, but it was really, really tough on this golf course this week and it brought out the competitiveness in us, so I am really happy that I finished the season off with a solid round,” said Manassero.
“I’ve been thinking about this moment this last month, so it’s starting to sink in.
“I’m very excited. There’s been a lot of talking about it. Now this season is over and we move on to the next one, which will throw up new challenges.
“The Matteo that was winning at 18 years old is gone. While it may have appeared I was forever at ease on the golf course in those early years of success as a professional, that was not the case.
“I know what it feels like being stressed or being afraid about something that could potentially happen on a golf course.
“I’m pleased I had a successful season and I’m excited for what’s coming ahead, for sure.”
Manassero won’t waste any time and no doubt will enter the opening event of the new season, the November 23rd commencing Joburg Open in the South African capital full of confidence.
After leaving the amateur ranks as World No. 1 and also capturing the ‘Low Amateur’ award at the 2009 Open Championship, Manassero turned pro in the May 2010 BMW Italian Open.
His first win came later that same year in October at the Castelló Masters Costa Azahar in Valencia, Spain, where he triumphed by four strokes over Ignacio Garrido. The victory made him the youngest-ever winner on the European Tour, surpassing the record set by Kiwi Danny Lee at the 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic.
A second place finish at the 2010 UBS Hong Kong Open assured Manassero the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award for the year.
Four months into 2011 Manassero created Tour history by capturing a second Tour win at the Maybank Malaysian Open, winning at the age of 17 years and 363 days, making him first and second on the list of youngest European Tour winners.
Then in securing victory at the 2012 Barclays Singapore Open, he became the first teenager to win three times on the European Tour.
‘Manny’ gleaned another entry into the Tour history books winning the biggest tournament of his career to date: the 2013 BMW PGA Championship with a birdie at the fourth extra play-off to become the youngest-ever winner of the Tour’s flagship event.
He battled a first low in his career with a shock 2015 season making just six of 22 cuts and tumbling to 167th on the money-list, only to hold onto his card thanks to his Wentworth triumph, but it was as though the writing was already on the wall as the next four years proved a golfing hell for the popular Italian, managing two thirds and only just holding onto his card in ending 2018 ranked 122nd on the money list.
It horribly bottomed-out for Manassero in 2019 contesting 18 events and making the cut in just one.
He spent 2020 competing on the Alps Tour, and in September captured a first tournament victory in seven years, a win that helped him make his way in 2021 onto the secondary Challenge Tour where the crestfallen Tour pro for Garda Golf sought to get himself out of the golfing wilderness and back to those heady times of near on a decade ago.
That finally happened for Manassero in May earlier this year in capturing the Copenhagen Challenge, with wife Francesca on the bag, virtually wrapped-up his 2024 DP World Tour card with victory some seven weeks later in the most-appropriate event, the Italian Challenge to the north of Rome.
And he rightfully singled out Francesca for special praise.
“She was a big help both weeks, putting me in the right frame of mind, offering me the right perspective on the situation and not getting too involved in shot selection,” he said.
“Put simply, she was just there for me. You smile together, you laugh, you talk and there is more to just being extremely intense and focused on the outcome of every shot, which at least for me can become a little bit too much. Those factors helped me perform, made me bring out my A-game in difficult circumstances.
“She isn’t going to become a full-time caddie for me. It just wouldn’t be the right balance for us, but there are certainly things I have learned that I need from a caddie going forward that I probably wouldn’t have considered before. I’ve realised that having someone alongside me who keeps me in a relaxed mindset is massive for the flow and freedom of my game”.
Well done Manny and so good to see you back where you belong.
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