Matteo Manassero has written one of the most beautiful pages in recent golf history today in South Africa. The Italian has won again on the DP World Tour. He has conquered the Jonsson Workwear Open by stringing together four consecutive birdies in a majestic tournament finale. His victory is the purest demonstration that fairy tales exist in sport.
The golfer from Negrar in Verona has achieved the fifth victory of his career on the European circuit today. He has achieved it almost eleven years later than the fourth. Specifically, 3,491 days later. Back then, in May 2013, Argo had won the Oscar for best picture, Pope Benedict had just announced his resignation and Bayern Munich had won the Champions with Robben’s golf.
In more than ten years many things have changed, but there is one that remains the same. The extraordinary ability of this blessed sport to generate these wonderful fables. Manassero, always in love with Severiano Ballesteros, was one of the best golfers in the world a decade ago. He was among the top 25 in the world, won the BMW PGA Championship and no one dared to imagine what his limit could be. Simply, he didn’t have one.
From there, a gradual and persistent downhill began. Undoubtedly, one of the turning points for his decline, not the only one, but one of them, was the search for more distance, as he acknowledged to Ten Golf. He kept falling and falling until he hit rock bottom. He lost his playing rights on any circuit. Simply, he couldn’t play golf unless someone gave him an invitation.
In the midst of his fall, like so many others, he sought a thousand and one solutions, shortcuts, pseudo-miraculous remedies that, suddenly, would put him back in the top 25 in the world. But that doesn’t exist. Or, at least, he realised that they don’t exist and decided to reset the counter. Brutal reset. He started so from the base that he started playing tournaments on the Alps Tour. He, Matteo, the boy who at 16 won a British Amateur and played an Open Championship sharing a match in Turnberry with Tom Watson and Sergio García. And he finished 13th. He, Matteo, the youngest winner in the history of the European circuit. He, Matteo, the youngest winner in Wentworth. Yes, that Matteo who was skipping steps four at a time. That same one had the humility, the courage and the strength to start from scratch.
Hace tiempo que Manassero se quitó los guantes y se bajó del cuadrilátero
His comeback plan didn’t have an immediate date, not even in the short term, and that’s probably the secret of his success. He took it easy, with patience, step by step almost literally. He won on the Alps and didn’t go crazy. He returned to the Challenge, started to get good results and didn’t go crazy either. He failed in his attempt to return to the DP World Tour in 2022 and remained calm. In 2023 two victories came in the Challenge and, even then, he didn’t go crazy. He didn’t want to rush, he didn’t want anxiety, he had no expectations. There was a plan and he just had to follow it.
Today, in his tenth tournament since his return to the DP World Tour, he has won again. It’s the essence of Manassero. The hallmark of the prodigy boy. He does things faster than anyone else, but not out of obligation or by forcing the machine, but because they come naturally to him when he recognises himself in the mirror. When he is true to himself.
Manassero has won again as he always has. Showing extraordinary determination. Hitting the shots he had to hit when it was time. Holding on when things didn’t quite work out. His finish has been sublime. Birdie on the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th to finally win with a three-stroke lead over Shaun Norris, Jordan Smith and Thriston Lawrence.
His return to the altars has been delayed by an interruption of about two and a half hours due to an electrical storm. A trifle for someone who has been waiting for this moment for more than ten years, undoubtedly the most popular victory on the DP World Tour in recent years.
And do you know what’s the best part? The boy is only 30 years old. Matteo.
