About losing
Italian golfer overcomes a poor start to be clubhouse leader
At a stage when most in his trade strive for a foothold on tour, let alone eye success, Matteo Manassero, 23, can tell a thing or two about losing way.
It was tough to come to terms initially,especiallywhen“you’ve not had a bad moment early on”. The Italian has reason to say so. At 17, he was the European Tour’s youngest winner in 2010, bagging a title in his rookie season itself.
ANOTHER DISTINCTION
He kept winning for the next three seasons, so by the time he was 20, he had four wins, which was another distinction.
Manassero has other firsts, liketheyoungesttomake the cut at The Masters, but all that seems to have happened ages ago. It’s isn’t as if that’s forgotten, but the journey from instant stardom to relative obscurity has left him wiser, and perhaps more appreciative of those early gains.
From an all-time high of 26, his world ranking has plunged to 336, but the heart has stayed in golf. Was it a case of getting ahead of the self when he made changes to his swing, etc even while he was winning? There is silence but the steely glint makes it clear he hasn’t given up.
An obvious reaction would have been to go back to the old ways, but Manassero fought off those thoughts. “Golf isn’t about swinging it right, there’re a host of other things,” he said as the clubhouse leader of the Hero Indian Open on Thursday.
After enduring a phase when nothing seemed to go right, the swing’s got better and so has the confidence. That would explain the opening day at the DLF Golf & Country Club. Starting with a double bogey on the 10th, he was two-over after seven. There was the danger of losing way as it’s easy to lose shots here.
AWAY FROM COMPETITION
Manassero set himself up on the 17th but it wasn’t easy, especially after being away from competi- tion. “I was home for three weeks and to come back to a tough course like this, it’s never easy.”
The back-to-back birdies got him going. “I always feel that the front nine, if you play well, it gets a little bit easier.”
It did as he kept the bogeys out. The four birdies completed the comeback and Manassero hopes to keep it that way. “You have to be always in play, otherwise…” and the voice trailed off. There were times when the golf ball was bouncing off the greens in a manner a cricket ball does on a first-day pitch. That’s how hard some of the greens were. It was hard and really tough out there.
And, maybe, I was expecting the course to play like this, or I may have played slightly different. Having said that, it is the same for all of us. So, one does need to play accordingly. At fourover 76 in the first round of the Hero Indian Open 2017, the positive that I will take from the first
QUITE UNHAPPY
I went into water twice and dropped a double and triple and missed quite a few putts.
So, frankly, I’m quite disappointed. I was playing well at the start — three birdies in a row from 15th to 17th. But towards the end of my first nine — the back nine of the course — the wait before hitting threw me off my rhythm.
On the 18th, I stood on the tee for a long time. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to draw or cut the ball. I ended up making
LOSING RHYTHM
After that, I just couldn’t find my rhythm. I couldn’t hit the right kind of shape I was looking for. I missed a bunch of greens as well. I was in a great position off the tee on the fourth, but miscalculated the wind there. This happened a couple of times with me today.
A loose swing on the 7th led to a triple bogey, again because of a misjudged second shot. I misjudged the green, hit a good shot but didn’t expect it to go 20 yards further after landing on the green. It just bounced off the green. I had dropped six shots in four holes. Then, to finish with two birdies was a relief.