Dates, especially birthdays and anniversaries, record and mark our lives, but for some reason the calendar seems to have defined the life and times of Matteo Manassero more than most.
In one sense, it is an inevitable side effect of the Italian having been such a precocious young talent.
Consider that in 2009 he was the youngest winner of the Amateur Championship (a few weeks after his 16th birthday), that the following April he became the then-youngest player to make the cut in the Masters, and that in October 2010, having turned professional shortly after his 17th birthday, he became the youngest winner on the DP World Tour, defeating Sergio García on his home course in the Castelló Masters.
His career momentum was remarkable. In each of the next three years, Manassero won again, becoming the first teenager to record three wins on the tour, and the last of those triumphs was his greatest: the 2013 BMW PGA at Wentworth.
Five days later, he led the field at the halfway stage of the Nordea Masters in Sweden. Though he could not have known it at the time, he had peaked. Manassero would fall back into a share of fourth, and there was worse – much worse – to come.
In fact, the fall was to be every bit as dizzying as the ascent had been.
He recorded just three top 10s in 2014, missed 16 straight cuts through 2015 and 2016 and lost his tour card in 2018.
In 2009, that Amateur Championship win had earned him a start at the Open, and he had played the first 36 holes alongside García and the hero of that week in Turnberry, eventual runner-up Tom Watson. (The 59-year-old American, a five-time Open champion, had been a mere 43 years older than his pre-weekend playing competitor.)
Ten years later – an unwanted anniversary – he made only two cuts all year. From a career high of No. 25 in the Official World Golf Ranking, he had plunged to 1,805th.
“2019 was tough,” Manassero told GGP earlier this year at the Bahrain Championship, reflecting on a brutal period of his life but one that he had been determined would be the start of his renaissance. “Things had to – and were going to – change.”
He connected with Alessandra Averna, a former Italian national team colleague who was now a performance coach. “She cleared my mind of the dirt,” he said. “I needed to be patient. I had to start again from the bottom.”
"For a while, you can say that I was beaten by it, but I never blamed golf. I stopped playing for a little while, but I was never going to stop playing forever. I will always love golf, and now I appreciate it more.”
Matteo Manassero
His country was one of the first to be hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but he concedes that the lockdown was kind to him. “Many people struggled, and I know this,” he said. “But I had time to work on what mattered. That time was good for me.”
In September 2020, Manassero won on the third-tier Alps Tour, and Averna wrote on Instagram: “This win is the result of more than a year’s worth of hard work, dedication and patience. Hats off to you, Matteo, for trusting our work together, for always being ready to step out of your comfort zone, for accepting all challenges and never giving up.”
The victory earned a promotion to the second-tier Challenge Tour. For genuine signs of recovery, he would have to wait another 2½ years. Perhaps inevitably, when it came, another anniversary – a much more pleasant one – was involved.
In the final week of May last year, Manassero travelled to Denmark, home of his coach, one-time European Ryder Cup performer Søren Hansen, for the Copenhagen Challenge. It was exactly 10 years that week since his Wentworth triumph.
Manassero and Hansen were pleased with some swing fine-tuning. They had a good game plan. His wife, Francesca, was providing good vibes on the bag, and Manassero was well aware of the significance of the date. “I had good energy,” he said and proved it with victory. By the end of the summer, he had added a second title and with it confirmed his return to the main tour. In a DP World Tour blog, he wrote: “It took time and I guess I had good resilience.”
In March this year, four years to the day since Italy’s lockdown was imposed and his own hibernation began, Manassero went into the weekend of the Jonsson Workwear Open at Glendower Golf Club in South Africa with a one-shot lead courtesy of a second-round 61 that he described as “the best round of my life.”
He didn’t blink, carding 67-66 over the final 36 holes to win by three. His description of the final round was a little like his career in microcosm. “I had a difficult time at 12 and 13,” he said. “It was hard, but I got through it. In every round of golf, you have tough times. If you can get through them, you can see the light.”
He added: “This is the best day of my life on a golf course. It’s been a crazy journey over the last few years. I knew I was on the right track, but you never know what might happen.”
That result was the second of what would become 12 top-20 finishes for the season. He also has returned to major-championship action for the first time since 2016; held a three-shot 54-hole lead on his emotional return to Wentworth before finishing fourth; sits inside the top 10 of the Race to Dubai; is set to win a PGA Tour card for 2025; has a Ryder Cup debut in the cross-hairs; and, this week, will return to the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai for the first time in – you guessed it – 10 years.
But just as the emotional return to Wentworth was measured, so his revival has been calm. At last month’s Andalucía Masters hosted by the Real Club Sotogrande, Manassero told GGP he has no intention of meddling with the methods Averna has taught him.
“I have got back to where I am with good processes,” he said. “I know that I have nice possibilities in my future now. A card on the PGA Tour is one; the Ryder Cup is another. I cannot ignore them, but I have learned to put goals aside and focus on process. I will keep doing that.”
The thick mop of dark hair is no different now than 15 years ago when Manassero first emerged at an elite level. The disarming smile has also not changed, which is all the more admirable given everything he has been through.
He hails from Verona, home of the doomed romantic duo Romeo and Juliet. Was his heart ever broken by the game? Did he ever fall out of love with it?
“Oh, no, never,” he said. “For a while, you can say that I was beaten by it, but I never blamed golf. I stopped playing for a little while, but I was never going to stop playing forever. I will always love golf, and now I appreciate it more.”
That dreamy smile again.
“Yeah, I appreciate it a lot more.”
E-MAIL MATT
Top: Matteo Manassero and his wife/caddie Francesca enjoy an emotional 2023 DP World Tour victory.
oliver hardt, getty images