Italy's Matteo Manassero became the youngest ever winner of the BMW PGA Championship as he claimed his fourth European Tour title at the age of 20 on the fourth hole of a sudden-death play-off at the magical Wentworth club.
It what was a testing week due to the ever changing weather conditions, the Italian (DryJoys Tour and StaSof) held strong scoring 4, 5, 4, and 4 in the play-off to take the title.
Overnight leader Alejandro Cañizares (Contour and SciFlex) missed from 18 feet on the last for an eagle to join the play-off and Lee Westwood (FJ ICON and StaSof) held a two shot lead after birdies on the second, third and fourth, but the Worksop born professional couldn’t keep his momentum playing the back nine and he finished equal ninth.
Manassero who looked very comfortable on the range at the start of the week shot rounds of 69, 71, 69 and 69 – a total of 10 under par and at the age 20 years and 37 days, beats the previous record of Bernard Gallacher, who was 20 years and 97 days when he won in 1969.
"I feel unbelievable, really emotional," The Italian announced after his dramatic win.
"It's been an amazing week. I have always felt something really special about this place and this tournament. Everything has come together this week. I managed to play well and managed to stay in contention after a tough day on Friday and pulled it off with this play-off."
"I am the happiest man in the world right now."
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