Manassero’s quest to rediscover spark that made him a shining star

AS THE eyes of the golfing world prepare to descend on Dubai this week, a golfing clinic no more than an hour down the road received little attention.

The practice range of the Gary Player-designed Saadiyat Beach Golf Club is less than 100 miles from where Rory McIlroy will attempt to hold off the challenge of Danny Willett and others to retain his European Tour crown. For Matteo Manassero, it could be a million.

The young Italian is talking his guests through the vagaries of playing golf in a strengthening Arabian wind while hitting lob-shot pitches with a four-iron to a green less than 60 yards away. He is entertaining, accommodating and generous with his time. For time is something he has a lot of.

As European golf’s bandwagon careers to its conclusion this week, Manassero has been left to ponder why he is so far off the pace.

Rewind back to May 2013 and he was still a month short of his 20th birthday when he held off the combined challenge of Simon Khan and Scotland’s Marc Warren to win a play-off for the prestigious BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Remarkably, it was already his fourth win on the European Tour.

As a fresh-faced 16-year-old, he had become the youngest player to win the Silver Medal when he sparkled as the top amateur at The Open at Turnberry in 2009. The following year, he would become the youngest player to make the cut at The Masters — a record that was beaten by 14-year-old Guan Tianlang in 2013. When Manassero turned professional in 2010 at the age of just 17, only his idol Seve Ballesteros could claim to have joined the paid ranks at a more tender age.

The triumphs that followed singled Manassero out as a special talent — his appearances in the Seve Trophy surely only a prelude to a Ryder Cup appearance in the future.

Everything came so quick, without much thought. At one point, you pay the price

STILL only 22, that Ryder Cup call-up may still come. For now, all that Manassero is concentrating on is arresting the slide that has seen him tumble to 167th in Europe and 557th in the world. In 2013, he had forced his way into the top 30.

The three-year exemption which came with his Wentworth triumph assures him of his place on the Tour next season but it is his last safety net.

‘Everything came quick and without much thought,’ Manassero says of the meteoric start to his professional career. ‘That was really good in a way and still is very good because what I have done is mine and they can’t take it off me. But at one point, you have got to pay the price.

‘You realise that what you have done is obviously for a reason, but you don’t really know why everything came and now you have got to go through some bad moments. You have to go back to the instinctive and all those things. It is not so easy, but I guess I had the luck and the ability to do things already so, in my mind, I know that I can do so again.

‘I know I can get back to that, so that is a good thing but you have got to look at both faces of the medal. It was really good what I’ve done and it has been amazing — now I have got to go back to that. It is harder because you realise how tough it is.

‘You learn so much more about yourself when it is hard. When you win, all you hear is how good you are, well done and you can do this, you can do more, it is all good.

‘In yourself you don’t ask many questions. Everything is fine and you don’t get affected by anything. When it’s bad all the comments are negative. It is much harder to get confidence. You are doubting and that is when you learn a lot about yourself and about people. So I think in some ways it is a good thing.’

And did he start doubting himself, did he stop believing?

‘Yes, it is difficult not to do so,’ he admits. ‘You lack confidence and you are playing badly. You can’t make scores, you start saying: “What am I doing wrong?”. That is natural, you get more and less affected, but it is really good that I know what I have done before and that I can do it again.’

Those carefree days at Turnberry in 2009 continue to burn in Manassero’s memory. Playing alongside Tom Watson and Sergio Garcia for the opening two rounds, his reward as Amateur Champion, was a spell-binding experience.

He would go on to not only make the cut but also threaten the leaderboard and easily claim the Silver Medal prize.

But playing those two days with Watson, the man for whom the golfing world was cheering to victory only to see him stumble at the very last, remain magical moments.

‘It was amazing obviously to experience something like that so young,’ Manassero said. ‘In a way, you don’t appreciate it as much as when you are older. It made me play so well, it was unconscious. I hadn’t thought about everything that goes on and that is a good thing.

‘Obviously you grow, you mature a lot more and you realise how tough it is but the memories from there are unbelievable.

‘I remember there were so many people on the first tee. Tom is so loved in Scotland and Sergio was the other guy. He was coming to every major with expectations of winning — much more so in an Open Championship

‘Turnberry is probably still my favourite course. Everything was perfect. If I had finished better I could have finished top five. It was unbelievable, golf was secondary to everything else.

‘Tom Watson is such a good man. He is not the sort of man who wants to teach you something or wants to leave something of himself. He is not a man of big sentences, he just says a couple of things and they stick.’

HE added: ‘All he said was just to stay the way I was. Obviously I loved the time with him and I think he enjoyed it as well because he looked so relaxed, so happy to be there. He was just playing along and obviously he’s playing perfect. He wasn’t putting well but his golf was incredible. He didn’t say many things. He just made me comfortable with that situation.’

For Manassero to ‘stay the way I was’ as Watson instructed means a return to the winner’s circle when new challengers have presented themselves.

Willett could see himself crowned king of European golf this weekend while Shane Lowry and Chris Wood have also carved a name for themselves.

And then there is young Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick — a year younger than Manassero but already a winner at this year’s British Masters. The parallels between the pair are clear.

‘Matt Fitzpatrick is doing everything well,’ the young Italian says. ‘He is a very relaxed guy, with a similar game to me as well, because he is definitely not a big hitter but makes up for that with accuracy and his short game.

‘I like Matt. He is a nice guy, very feet on the ground, loves golf and works hard. He deserves what he is doing and is a very solid player. He is surrounded by a good team of people who know a lot about this game, so I think he doesn’t have to, as Tom told me once, he doesn’t have to change much.

‘If your game is solid, he will do very well in his career. And European golf is very healthy. There is some amazing talent. Shane and Danny — and then Rory who is basically the best in the world.’

Matteo Manassero is an ambassador for Golf in Abu Dhabi.