Ten years and ten months after the last time, Matteo Manassero returns to success on the top European men's golf circuit.
In South Africa, the 30-year-old from Veneto won the Jonsson Workwear Open with a total of 262 (68 61 67 66, -26) shots.
For the Italian, who hadn't won on the DP World Tour since May 26, 2013 (BMW PGA Championship), it is the fifth career success on the circuit.
In Edenvale, near Johannesburg, Manassero took the lead in the second round, when he achieved his best round of his career (61, -11), and never let it go again.
Four consecutive birdies were decisive in the final.
Italian golf thus finds one of its most anticipated champions, who still boasts the record of youngest winner on the DP World Tour (at the time it was called the European Tour) thanks to his exploit in Spain in the 2010 Castellò Masters at the age of 17 , 6 months and 5 days.
Even stronger than the bad weather, which in South Africa caused the game to be suspended for two hours and thirty minutes, after 3,942 days Manassero found success again on the DP World Tour. On 26 May 2013, he triumphed in England in the BMW PGA Championship, the most prestigious tournament on the circuit, reaching 25th place in the world ranking.
After the records, the former child prodigy of Italian golf however lost his way.
In September 2020, starting from the bottom, he made the Toscana Alps Open (Alps Tour and Italian Pro Tour) his own.
Then, in 2023, he achieved an encore of victories on the Challenge Tour, taking first the Copenhagen Challenge in Denmark and then, in Sutri (Viterbo), the Italian Challenge Open.
So, he regained the full "card" to play on the DP World Tour 2024. And now he is back to winning and dreaming on the most important European circuit in a fundamental year also in view of the Paris Games.
After his debut in Rio de Janeiro 2016, Manassero aims to play his second Olympics.
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