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."
Shoe Count:FJ - 55%Nearest Comp. - 21%
Matteo Manassero holed a 12 foot putt for eagle on the third playoff hole to defeat fellow FJ staffer Louis Oosthuizen in the Barclay's Singapore Open.
Tropical storms on Friday forced the field to play most of their third round and all of the final round on Sunday. Matteo finished up his first 18 on Sunday with a bogey free 64 to race to the top of the leaderboard at 11-under par. Not to be outdone was former British Open Champion, Oosthuizen, who shot a third round 65 to keep pace with the Italian teenager.
Starting the final round with a two stroke lead, Manassero (FJ Sport and StaSof) rattled off two birdies in his first four holes to remain in control of the tournament. He then made 10 straight pars letting the South African back into the tournament, with Oostuizen (DryJoys Tour and SciFlex) drawing even on the 15th hole. Both players matched birdies on the final hole of regulation to finish at 13 under par.
Birdies were exchanged on the first playoff hole and pars on the next. Then Matteo closed out the tourney with a brilliant eagle for the victory.
Manassero stated post round, “The playoff was just a great honor to play with Louis - it’s been amazing, really. This year has been a tough year for me going through a few swing changes, but it has been amazing this week. I’m glad this came in such a great tournament."
This is Matteo's third win on the European Tour making him the first teenager ever to accomplish this feat.