Matteo Manassero: consistency will be key to success at the Malaysian Open – Golf Feature
Matteo Manassero, an emerging golf star from Italy, has vowed to defend his title at the MayBank Malaysian Open that he won last year. It was his second professional career victory and the first on the European Tour.
With that victory, he became the youngest golfer ever to record a win in any European Tour sanctioned event.
This year, he aims to repeat history by successfully defending the title at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, from April 12 - 15 2012.
Mohamed Adam Wee, Chief Marketing Officer, Maybank, expressed his pleasure over the return of reigning champion to the field.
He said that it has now become a tradition for the tournament to have the defending champion present in the field each year.
"We believe strongly in celebrating champions and we look forward to what we expect will be yet another inspiring display of skill and verve from Manassero in Kuala Lumpur," Wee said.
"Headlined by some of the world's top players, the calibre of the world-class field that is set to gather at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club is once again a resounding aye for the prestige and long-held reputation of the Maybank Malaysian Open as the
place where champions are born!" he added.
With reference to his recent stats on the European Tour, he is no doubt a favourite to win the tournament this year.
He played a total of eight European Tour events this year and succeeded in recording three top-six finishes among them. It also included a second-place finish in the Open de Andalucía Costa del Sol.
However, despite his good finishes in the season, different tournaments also witnessed him falling apart in several tournaments.
In the Commercialbank Qatar Masters presented by Dolphin Energy, he missed the cut after carding 74 and 72 in the first two rounds. He again faltered in the Sicilian Open, where he scored 72-72 to miss the cut again.
The most disappointing aspect of his performance at the Sicilian Open includes his meltdown just after an excellent display of game at the Open de Andalucía Costa del Sol and Trophée Hassan II.
Therefore, the only threat to his defence for the title at the Malaysian Open will be his inconsistency.
No doubt he has the skills and abilities to outshine his opponents in any of the field he enters. Yet, the consistency plays a key role in a success of any player in the world of golf.
It is observed that players losing control in the final rounds of the tournaments hand over the easy victory to their opponents.
Recently, we saw Ernie Els’ example of faltering on the final two holes of the 2012 Transitions Championship.
He had a one-stroke margin over his rivals on the course while reaching the 71st hole of the tournament.
Thereafter, he carded two consecutive bogeys to go one stroke behind the final five, among whom Luke Donald came out as victorious in the playoffs.
For that reason, Manassero should also work out on his game, especially when he has a couple of weeks off before the tournament begins in the second week of April.
He missed the chance of qualifying for the Masters Tournament scheduled to start from April 5 to 8, 2012.
Therefore, he will be staying at home, where he can tweak his game and he should analyse the mistakes that have been hampering him from recording a victory since last year’s Malaysian Open.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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