Matteo now a star Turn

MATTEO Manassero yesterday looked forward to presenting his precocious talent to Scotland’s fans in next month’s Open at Turnberry and the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

PREVIOUS RECORD Olazabal was 18 PREVIOUS RECORD: Olazabal was 18

At 16 years and two months, he is the youngest player to win the Amateur Championship in its 124-year history, the new standard bearer of the current youth “phenomenon” in golf.

When Jose Maria Olazabal beat Colin Montgomerie by 5&4 in the 1984 final at Formby he was 18, as were John Beharrell at Troon in 1956 and Bobby Cole at Carnoustie 10 years later.

Manassero’s 4&3 triumph over England’s Sam Hutsby in the 36-hole final at the same venue has blown those records away.

“They are getting younger and younger, aren’t they?” said R&A chief executive Peter Dawson. “And it’s remarkable how quickly this has happened. It hasn’t been many years since this all-young phenomenon has come through.”

While Manassero, a schoolboy from Verona with another three years of classes ahead of him, can look forward, at an almost ridiculously young age, to Turnberry, Loch Lomond and next year’s Masters at Augusta, he is not alone among the fresh-faced champions in a man’s world.

New Zealand’s Danny Lee was the youngest winner of the US Amateur Championship last year before becoming the youngest player to win on the European Tour at the Johnnie Walker Classic in February at the age of 18 years, 213 days.

Two weeks earlier, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy won in Dubai when only 19 years, 273 days.

At 20, Hutsby, a certainty for Colin Dalgleish’s GB&I Walker Cup team for Merion in September, was the oldest of the semi-finalists at Formby at the weekend. The other two, Stiggy Hodgson and Darren Renwick, are 18 and 19.

Dean Robertson, head coach to the winning European squad in the recent Palmer Cup in America, spent several days at Formby and was mightily impressed by the overall standard.

“Young guys like Manassero, England’s Tommy Fleetwood, Spaniard Jorge Campillo and American Steve Ziegler have European Tour games right now,” said Robertson, a former Italian Open champion.

“Some of them have attributes in the long game that I never came close to matching.

“I was also super impressed by the Scots, Gavin Dear and Wallace Booth. Wallace has tremendous talent, and once he refines his game I’m sure he will have a great future. They all have big futures in the game.”

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