The decline was steep, but the resurgence is proving equally dizzying. Matteo Manassero is on the cusp of realising the latest act in his remarkable comeback story.
In his first start in the prestigious BMW PGA Championship since 2018, the Italian holds a three-shot 54-hole lead at Wentworth Club. A flawless nine-birdie 63 in Saturday’s third round saw him upstage playing partners Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel to take control.
To the casual golf fan, seeing Manassero at the summit might seem scarcely believable, but in truth it’s little surprise. Since earning promotion from the European Challenge Tour last season, the 31-year-old has enjoyed a year beyond his wildest expectations.
But, to win the flagship BMW PGA Championship for the second time - 11 years after doing so as a 20-year-old in 2013 - would be the undoubted highlight of a career resurgence.
After all, this is a player - who at 17 years and 188 days became the youngest winner on the DP World Tour when he won the Castelló Masters Costa Azahar in 2010 - who has come back from the depths of golfing despair.
Last year, in a Player Blog with the DP World Tour, Manassero spoke of how he removed himself completely from golf - even playing recreationally - due to the struggles he was facing in the game, having dropped to 1,805th on the Official World Golf Ranking.
But, sure enough, he worked his way back up the golfing ladder, from the Alps Tour to the Challenge Tour and onto the DP World Tour. What has happened since is the stuff of dreams, and there is still potentially so much more still to come before the year is out - potentially starting on Sunday.
Here, we take a closer look at how Manassero rose to quick acclaim, the subsequent struggles, and his return to form.
First steps in golf and amateur success
Born in Negrar, Italy, Manassero first started playing golf when he was three years old and like so many of us was hooked from his first swing of a club. In an interview with the DP World Tour in 2011, he spoke of how he knew from a young age his goal was to become a professional. His talent was later spotted and nurtured by former Tour professional Alberto Binaghi and success came quickly on the amateur stage. At the age of 16, he became the youngest winner of the British Amateur Championship in 2009, later that year finishing as the low amateur in The Open at Turnberry, playing alongside the great Tom Watson over the first two rounds, before ending the year as the amateur World Number One. "Playing with Tom Watson, I grew up a little bit," he said of the experience. "Even if he didn't say something to you, even if he didn't give you advice, you have grown up just watching him. It was great." In April 2010, he then made the cut in the Masters Tournament at Augusta National on his debut, still only 16.
Quick rise to fame
Within weeks he took the decision to turn professional, becoming the second youngest player in DP World Tour history. Who was younger I hear you ask? Well, only Seve Ballesteros. Manassero would finish in a tie for 29th on his debut as a professional in his home country. Later that season, he would narrowly miss out on his first professional victory at the Rolex Trophy in Switzerland on the European Challenge Tour. But it wasn’t long before that breakthrough triumph in the paid ranks came. He would rewrite the DP World Tour record books at the Castelló Masters Costa Azahar in 2010, becoming its youngest winner – a record he still holds. At 17 years and 188 days, he beat the previous record set by New Zealand’s Danny Lee, who was 18 years and 213 days old when he won the 2008 Johnnie Walker Classic. In doing so, he broke Ballesteros’ record as the youngest full DP World Tour member by 12 days. He would win for a second time the following year, holding off challenges from Grégory Bourdy and Rory McIlroy to win the Maybank Malaysian Open, two days before his 18th birthday. He then made it three titles in as many DP World Tour seasons, with a play-off triumph over then-Major Champion Louis Ooosthuizen in Singapore in November 2012. All achieved while still a teenager. But the biggest victory of his career was to follow with another play-off success in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club, becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious event. Within weeks of that triumph, he reached a high of 25th on the Official World Golf Ranking, still only 20. He went on to finish that season a career-high tenth on the Race to Dubai Rankings.
The fall
Later that summer in 2013, he made slight changes to his swing before also changing club manufacturer. He began the 2014 season with the aim of making Paul McGinley's European Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles, but his bid stalled as he went on to make just two top 10s. Victory at Wentworth ensured his place on the DP World Tour for five seasons, but a steady decline materialised before he lost his full playing privileges in 2018. From being viewed alongside McIlroy as a poster boy for European golf, Manassero became stuck in the golfing doldrums. In 2019 he made just one cut in 18 worldwide starts and then Covid-19 hit, leaving him with limited playing opportunities and dropping to 1,805th on the Official World Golf Ranking.
Starting afresh, Alps Tour and graduating from the Challenge Tour
Such was the torment the game was causing him, he stepped away from it for a few months." I literally couldn’t play anymore," he wrote in a Player Blog with the DP World Tour towards the end of last year. "Golf had become too heavy on me. That was a tough realisation. I had always played golf in a free and joyful way, but I knew I had to rebuild myself." He made the decision to take some starts on both the Nordic Golf League and the Alps Tour, winning his first professional title in more than seven years on the latter at the Toscana Alps Open in September 2020. Two runner-up finishes would follow on the Alps Tour, the third division of European golf, in early 2021 before returning to the Challenge Tour for the first of two winless seasons at that level. But belief in his game was all the while growing, and he won twice last season as he graduated back to the DP World Tour. The first of those, achieved in Denmark, was on the weekend of the ten-year anniversary of his victory at the BMW PGA Championship. A second followed a couple of months later on home soil, with both triumphs coming after he began to work with two-time DP World Tour winner Søren Hansen at the end of 2022. "With both of those victories on the Challenge Tour (in Copenhagen and Rome) I felt as good as I’ve ever felt at a golf tournament," said Manassero, who finished ninth on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings.
Completes comeback with emotional triumph
In the revealing Player Blog, Manassero expressed how he believed he would enjoy the 2024 season on the DP World Tour more than when he was being talked about so highly as a teenager. He would make the cut in his first two starts of the season, including finishing in a tie for fifth at the Investec South African Open Championship. But, being back on the DP World Tour was never going to plain sailing and he missed five of his next six cuts. However, his tenth start of the season would result in the most joyous moment of his career. After carding a career-low 61 in the second round at the Jonsson Workwear Open, the 30-year-old withstood fierce competition in the final round from a host of title challengers to close out with four consecutive birdies either side of a two-hour-and-27-minute storm delay to win once again on the DP World Tour, 3,942 days since his last. "This is the best day of my life on a golf course for sure," said an elated Manassero at the trophy presentation. He would later say in an interview with the DP World Tour, that returning to the winner's circle on the DP World Tour in his first season back seemed an improbable goal.
Back on the Major and Olympics stage
Another big milestone moment on his journey came in June, when he made his Major Championship comeback at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. The once prodigy of European golf had not played at the pinnacle of elite golf since The Open Championship in 2016. Eight years is a long time, and he couldn't hide his anticipation when he spoke to the DP World Tour after coming through Final Qualifying at Walton Heath to earn his place in the field. "Golf is always there to surprise you when you're working well and you're doing things right," said Manassero. While he would go on to miss the cut on his Major return, he would record top-ten finishes in both the Netherlands and Italy in his subsequent starts. This was a player who wasn't satisfied with what he had achieved - he wanted more. "Once you achieve a goal, golf presents you with something else to work for and prepare for," he added. And it wasn't long before his results on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex earned him his spot in The Open at Royal Troon, while shortly afterwards he enjoyed the honour of representing Italy for the second time in the Olympic Games at Le Golf National.
Now, on the back of a solo third finish in the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down last week - his second top ten in his last three starts - Manassero has brought his form to a venue which holds so many memories.
Before teeing it up this week, Manassero ranked sixth on the DP World Tour’s list of ten players who will earn dual membership status at the end of this season. Competing again on the PGA TOUR would serve as yet another amazing accomplishment in his revival.
After he earned his promotion to the DP World Tour last year, it was events like the BMW PGA Championship that he wanted to be back competing in, and yet he wouldn't be here were it not for his victory in March in South Africa.
But, here he is, with a maiden Rolex Series title within his grasp. You'd struggle to find anyone who would begrudge him the victory if it was to come his way.
