Breakfast Ball #10: Manassero Back in the Winner's Circle

The DP World Tour is special. While most of the narrative in our sport is about money and mergers, dreams are being made across the world on a weekly basis on the DP World Tour. This time, it was an Italian who made the headlines.

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Manassero Comes Back from the Brink to Win on the DP World Tour Again

The DP World Tour continues to produce the best golfing stories of 2024. This one starts fourteen years ago on the Eastern coast of Spain as a 17-year-old Italian golfer became the youngest ever winner on the European tour. Matteo Manassero had the world beneath his feet as he notched three more wins on the European Tour in the next three years, climbing as high as 25th in the world rankings. However, as it often does, his promise and potential did not materialize and the Italian declined significantly in the next few years.

Manassero played 17 events on the European Tour (now known as the DP World Tour) in 2019 and only made the cut once, losing his status on the tour. He considered quitting golf for a time, and was relegated to the third tier Alps Tour. Manassero went through intense personal struggle after experiencing such incredible highs as a young man traveling the world winning golf tournaments: “Everyone was telling me I was so talented but I never believed it myself”. However, he changed his entire swing and came back to golf with a determination to get back to the top. His first win came on the Alps Tour in 2020, which gave him a spot on the second tier of the DP World Tour, the Challenge Tour.

Manassero grinded on the Challenge Tour for three years, finishing in the top ten 12 times without getting a win that would propel him to the DP World Tour. However, last May that win came in the Copenhagen Challenge, and he followed that up with a win in his home country at the Italian Challenge Open. This gave him enough points to reclaim his DP World Tour card and make it back to the top tier of professional golf for 2024.

This weekend, Manassero returned to the DP World Tour summit for the first time in eleven years with a win at the Jonsson Workwear Open. He birdied the last four holes (which were interrupted halfway through with a rain delay) to win by three. Manassero went into the week ranked 381st in the world and jumped to 182nd after the win. He was understandably elated after the final putt dropped: “The best day of my life. It has been a crazy journey over the last couple of years, I knew I was getting on the right track but golf is a really difficult game”.

At its worst, golf is a sport that divides people over money, power, and greed. However, at its absolute best, golf can produce stories of individual strength and determination that need to be broadcast to inspire a new generation of golfers. Matteo Manassero is a perfect example.

Scheffler wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Lowry in Third as Europeans struggle

Scottie Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the second time with an impressive final round 66. The world number one has been by far the best golfer in the world tee to green for the past couple of years, but has had struggles with his putting. Prior to this weekend, Scheffler was ranked 144th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. However, this weekend he switched from a blade putter to a mallet, and was fifth in the field in putting, resulting in a win. This could spell trouble for the rest of the tour if Scheffler can continue this form.

Shane Lowry had a second top five in as many weeks after finishing solo third. Lowry was participating with a sponsor’s exemption and took full advantage of the opportunity. The last two weeks have been a huge turnaround for Lowry after a difficult period in the US. He had not finished in the top ten on the PGA Tour since February 2023 prior to last week’s tournament. He might be slightly disappointed with the final results after going into the final round in the lead in both tournaments, but his performances should give him encouragement going into majors season.

Rory McIlroy finished T21 with a final score of 1-under. While this may seem like a good result, he will likely be searching for answers to issues in his iron play. McIlroy was 2nd in the field in strokes gained off the tee (including the first recorded drive to the green on the 10th hole), but 55th (3rd last) in approach play. He will need to clean this up as he moves to TPC Sawgrass next week, a course that demands strong approach play. Unfortunately, a Masters win doesn’t seem like a possibility with the way McIlroy is playing right now.

Other Results:

• Seamus Power produced his best result on tour since last July with a T21 finish and Ludvig Åberg moved into the world’s top ten with a T25 finish

• Viktor Hovland’s chipping struggles seem to have come back into his game as he finished dead last in the field in strokes gained around the green

• Sami Valimaki missed the cut after going +5 in his last four holes to miss the cut by two

• Other Europeans who missed the cut included Matt Fitzpatrick, Nicolai Højgaard, and Tommy Fleetwood

  • Fleetwood shot a second round 80 that included a 10 on the par 5 6th

Quick Hits:

• Abraham Ancer won LIV Hong Kong in a 3-way playoff after beating Paul Casey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 and Cam Smith with a birdie on the first playoff hole

  • Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson, Jon Rahm, and Ian Poulter all finished three strokes off the winner in T8

• Brice Garnett won the Puerto Rico Open in the PGA Tour’s opposite field event

  • Victor Perez 🇫🇷 finished T3 as the best of the Europeans, with Adrien Dumont de Chassart 🇧🇪 (T6), Martin Laird 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (T10), and Matti Schmid 🇩🇪 (T10) all in the top 10

  • Opposite field events take place when the PGA Tour has a signature event or a major so that lower ranked players can still pick up FedEx cup points

• Greg Norman announced that LIV will not be continuing an application for OWGR points accreditation, as he claims they have “shown little willingness to productively work with us”

  • This is disappointing to hear after we wrote about this issue last week. It is hard to know who is to blame, but once again the losers in this equation are the fans who may miss out on top LIV golfers at majors in the future

Coming up this week on Tour:

• The PGA Tour’s biggest event in the calendar takes place at TPC Sawgrass with The Players Championship

• The DP World Tour and LIV Golf both have the weekend off

  • LIV returns on April 5th in Miami, while the DP World Tour will move into its Asian Swing at the Porsche Singapore classic on March 21st

• A number of LIV Golfers including Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, and David Puig will play on the Asian Tour this week at the International Series Macau

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