Matteo Manassero

[Lord Tyrion]

I was reading about how the next Ryder Cup in Europe is going to be in Italy and I started to think about other Italian golfers apart from the Molinari brothers. I was reminded of Matteo Manassero who had such a wonderful few years but has dropped off a cliff and is barely heard of now.

At the moment he is 125th in the Race to Dubai. I don't know if he has tour exemptions still but if not that is card losing territory. What has happenned to him? Is there any reason behind this drop in form?

 

[IanM]

He was hailed as "a next big thing...."

 

[Orikoru]

Never heard of him.

 

[richart]

Four European tour wins by the age of 19/20 odd, but seems to have completely lost his game. Won the BMW at Wentworth in 2013.

 

[Imurg]

He probably tried to change his swing.
I also think he tried to "beef" up a bit - that may have thrown his swing out of sync and it's a long way back. Probably a 5 year exemption for Wentworth so that'll run out at the end of this season. Has he won since?
Shame as he was a promising player.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Odd...switches to Callaway in 2014 and not heard of since....

 

[Jacko_G]

He tried to chase extra distance and lost his game.

He was such a talent as well.

 

[Grant85]

Doesn't have the distance. In some weeks and with the right conditions he has a chance, but for the most part he is struggling to make a cut if you aren't hitting it close to 300 yards... you are giving up maybe 20 yards on average vs the field, and some weeks this may be more like 30.

Also remember that a lot of the courses with older designs, his driving distance is going to be right in the spot for a lot of fairway bunkers. The guys who hit it 300 can probably carry the vast majority of fairway bunkers out there.

There is a minimum distance you have to hit it to really be competitive out there, which is probably 290 or there abouts.

Luke Donald is one who has really struggled mentally with this aspect after realising that he simply can't be competitive if he doesn't hit it further, but ultimately isn't straight enough if he really tries to bomb it.