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There were times that Matteo Manassero doubted he would ever play in The Open again.
Until last week, the Italian, who won the silver medal at Turnberry as a 16-year-old back in 2009, hadn’t played in the championship since it last visited Royal Troon in 2016.
A desperate slump that followed his victory in the BMW PGA Championship in 2013 left him without a DP World Tour card and, briefly, prompted him to quit the game altogether.
However, having worked his way back, via the Alps Tour and the Challenge Tour, Manassero won on the DP World Tour for the first time in 3,942 days earlier this year and is now eyeing up a PGA Tour card.
After four solid days in Ayrshire – his first major start in eight years – the 31-year-old was, quite justifiably, beaming.
“It’s been a good week,” said Manassero. “Obviously The Open, with tough conditions, brings a lot of different moments, but overall I’ve had a good week.
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“I didn’t finish playing the best golf I could play, I didn’t have my best, but still I managed to fight my way through Royal Troon better than last time [he missed the cut in 2016] so it’s good.”
The one-time teen phenom described The Open – and being back at it – as “very special”.
“The walk on 18 is the best. There’s nothing like it, with the huge stands and the clubhouse in the back. It’s golf at its very finest. It’s pure.
“I’m happy that I managed to do that walk again, and everything that was from Thursday and on, all the fights, all the great shots, all the good moments and the tough ones, it’s The Open, and it brings a lot of different things, but I’m happy that I’m here.
“It’s a great sign that I’m here.”
That’s for sure, not least because there were occasions when he thought he’d never again feature on this stage.
“There was times when I had doubts,” he admitted. “Obviously, this is one of the biggest stages in golf, and you never know if you’re going to come back to that level.
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“So, yes, I doubted it, but at the same time, I was going through a nice process and doing nice work, so I was hopeful. I wanted to live these moments again. But you never know. You just never know until you are there.”
From a low of almost 1,800th on the world rankings just four years ago, Manassero is now 141st and climbing. He’s also 16th on the Race to Dubai and is currently on-course to receive a PGA Tour card through the DP World Tour rankings at the end of this season.
“That’s definitely a goal,” he said. “But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. It’s one of those goals that plenty more guys like me are trying to do.
“I will try to do well from here to the end of the season aware that there is so much golf to play. From September all the tournaments have really big points, so you can shuffle the rankings quite a lot. But I have definitely given myself a good chance.
“Hopefully one day I will be teeing off around 3pm [in The Open]. Why not? I’ve had a lot of different things in my career, so I might as well try to look forward to some big stuff.
“But at the end of the day, my feet are on the ground, and I know that I have to go through my work, my process, and those are the things I can control. The rest is going to be impossible to control.”
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