A whole new ball game for Bluebirds fan Manley

STUART MANLEY could well have been living within a short drive of Royal Birkdale rather than teeing off at the famous links when making his Major debut in the Open Championship this week.

For as a raw-boned teenager, 38-year-old Manley was a budding right-back and having had trials with Manchester United was all set for a tryout with his boyhood idols at Everton.

But the scout, who spotted him, defected to Crystal Palace and instead of heading off to Goodison Park and a potential dream life on the north west coast of England, the Mountain Ashborn youngster was handed a trial at Selhurst Park.

Another one followed at Luton Town but as the trial matches came and went, so did Manley’s desire to make football a career.

Instead a love affair with golf was rapidly developing.

And despite his 14 years in the professional ranks being football’s equivalent of mixing it with the Premier League elite one minute and League Two the next, the Aberdare-based bighitter is ready to savour every moment of his time at the greatest golf show on earth this week.

Manley took his first steps into the paid ranks after the 2003 Walker Cup at Ganton when helping the Great Britain and Ireland side defeat an American team featuring Bill Haas and Ryan Moore, who would go on and join the millionaire jet-set on the PGA Tour and bag a combined 11 titles between.

Life hasn’t been as cash-laden across this side of the Atlantic for Manley with an incredible 13 visits to the European Tour final qualifying school in Spain.

Having worked out the formula to thrive in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of final qualifying, that brings some seasoned professionals to their knees, keeping a potentially lucrative European Tour card has been a different matter.

But a sizeable cheque next Sunday at Birkdale could go a long way to keeping his passport to the stars next season with Manley currently 126th on the Tour money list, the top 100 stay on Tour, while he’s down in 511th spot in the world rankings.

It puts his achievement of making the Open at Birkdale into perspective with his ticket to the Claret Jug extravaganza sealed after finishing joint second at the Johannesburg Open in February.

“I’m really chuffed to be playing in my first Major, I’m really excited,” said Manley, who tees off early tomorrow alongside American Maverick McNealy and Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai.

“I’ve been trying for many years through pre-qualifying so to get there I’m pretty pleased.

“The Open is massive and I can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into that golf course. I’ve never experienced anything as big as The Open before, but I can’t wait for it.

“I want to go there and try and compete against the world’s best.

“The prize money on offer is fantastic and that could go a long way to securing my card for the 2018 season.”

So does the avid Cardiff City fan have any regrets turning his back on a potential career in professional football for golf?

“I would never swap football for what I’m doing now,” he added.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would dearly love to run out with a Cardiff City shirt on.

“But my love wasn’t there for football and, as I got older, every game was a trial for me.

“It was getting so hard enjoying it. “With golf I love every minute. “Every day I go to work with a golf club in my hand, and, though it’s a hobby, it’s also my career.

“Things can’t get any better than that.

“I think if I was going to get a professional football contract it would have been in the lower leagues and I would have had to work my way up from there.

“But I didn’t have the love for it like I did for golf.

“I watch Cardiff City home and away when I can and part of me wishes I was a Cardiff City player sometimes, but I love playing golf.”

And what of his time at Manchester United.

“United scout Tony Hopkins spotted me playing for the Cynon Valley county team,” recalled Manley.

“No 13-year-old in their right mind would have turned down a trial with United.

“I was one of three from the county and we played a trial game in front of United’s youth team coaches.

“I was so nervous, my legs were like jelly.

“Lee Sharpe and Mark Robins, both first-team stars at United then, came down to meet us. It was a great day, I’ll never forget it.”

Manley is the only Welshman in the Open field. And though a bumper pay day next Sunday may not put him on a Premier League footballer’s salary, it will certainly justify hanging up the boots for the golf shoes all those years ago. I wasn’t