Matteo Manassero’s Star is Dim Stateside, but Not for Long

Matteo Manassero’s Star is Dim Stateside, but Not for Long
At 20 Years Old, the Italian Has Won Four Times Professionally, but Gets No Love in the US











Chris Chaney May 28, 2013 11:05 PM

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Matteo Manassero raises the trophy for the BMW PGA Championship.




COMMENTARY | Italy's Matteo Manassero emphatically reinserted himself into the conversation of the best young golfers in the world on Sunday, winning his fourth European Tour tournament in dramatic fashion at the BMW PGA Championship, the tour's flagship event.

At just 20 years old, Manassero has made a career of breaking records -- mostly age related -- and with his four-hole playoff defeat of Simon Kahn and Marc Warren at the B
MW, we were reminded once again just how good Manassero is at such a young age.



Currently, Manassero boasts four professional wins at an age younger than Tiger Woods had even turned pro. As for Rory McIlroy, his first win came at age 19, an age by which Manassero had already pocketed two winner's checks, en route to his third only months later.

The comparisons would come naturally -- fairly or not -- between the trio of child phenoms that realized success on the professional level have it not been for the general apathy levied by American fans towards the young Italian.

There's something about living under the 50 stars and 13 bars that we Americans tend to have a grandiose view about our sports. The MLB contends for the World Series despite all but one team hailing from a single country. Same way with the NBA. The league titleholders are hailed as World Champions. The tendency of Americans to measure success as a domestic trait has blinded our view of the truly exceptional taking place outside our borders.

Granted, golf may be one of the exceptions to the rule. The PGA Tour is widely considered to be where the best of the best come to play the top courses in the world with the most money on the line, but to zero in on one tournament a week in an American city would be doing a disservice to the global game.

The big knock on Manassero is that his success in Europe hasn't translated to success in America -- a fair gripe. Manassero's best finish in a stateside major was a T13 at the US Open in 2009. He still has only notched one top-10 in any event on American soil (T9 - 2011 WGC Match Play), yet the talent is irrefutable and thus far, practically unrecognized outside of Europe.

Manassero is still coming along, both mentally and physically. At this point in his career, the facets of the physical game that come with maturity and strength are not fully developed. His ball flight does not have the same arching trajectory that has become the norm and a necessity on many US courses.

However, the mental acuity gained in his four years traveling the world as a professional were on full display at Wentworth. Manassero simply wore down his opponents as he wore out the middle of the fairway. Steady and consistent the entire way through the four-hole playoff, Manassero proved to have the mental fortitude and discipline to outplay his opponents while still playing into his strengths.

We are well past the time when we should have noticed what Manassero has been doing. He's already the most accomplished Italian golfer on the circuit today and perhaps the best the country has produced since Constantino Rocca.

His developing physical game is catching up with his already sharp mental approach. Although he is not one of the longest hitters on Tour, tracks like Merion, the host of this year's US Open, play right into his hands.

Manassero has the ability to be the next great thing in global golf. It is time we in America pay attention.

Chris Chaney is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based sportswriter. He has written for multiple outlets including WrongFairway.com, Hoopville.com, The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer and The Clermont (OH) Sun.

Follow him on Twitter @Wrong_Fairway.

As Anchoring Players Lawyer Up, PGA Tour Not Making Any Promises

As Anchoring Players Lawyer Up, PGA Tour Not Making Any Promises
Nine Pros Seek Out Boston Lawyer While PGA Advisory Committee Remains Split











Chris Chaney May 29, 2013 12:30 PM




COMMENTARY | Not yet two weeks have passed since the USGA and R&A issued a joint statement condemning the anchored stroke as illegal and unusable in their sanctioned events effective January
1, 2016.



Still 2 ½ years from implementation, questions are swirling as to which side the PGA Tour and PGA of America will come down on. Talk of the Tour employing the ruling sooner rather than later has already been brought up, despite an actual decision from the Tour's stance being released.

Still, with no definitive stance being taken by the PGA Tour, some of the most prominent anchorers in the game have taken the precautionary step of retaining a lawyer with the possibility of waging legal war against the Tour should they have their preferred putting style outlawed.

Tim Clark, Adam Scott and Carl Pettersson have enlisted the services of Harry Manion, a Boston-based attorney and founding partner of Cooley Manion Jones.

Consulted only in a preparatory manner, Manion has begun readying a case against the Tour.

"Nobody wants to litigate, so you hope for the best and prepare for the worst," Manion said. "I am optimistic that the [PGA] Tour will not follow this rule."

The Tour's predicament is an intriguing one. Popular knowledge implies that while Commissioner Tim Finchem came out publicly at the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship and stated the Tour's stance as firmly opposed to the ban, recent events could prove a changing of sides is imminent.

"Essentially where the PGA Tour came down was that they did not think that banning anchoring was in the best interest of golf or the PGA Tour," Finchem said in Tucson, now over three months ago.

Months removed from Clark and other anchorers impassioned defense of the stroke, word from Tuesday night's PGA Tour Players Advisory Board meeting at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the site of this week's Memorial Tournament, were decidedly undecided.

Doug LaBelle II, a PAC member physically at the meeting -- others not in the field joined via conference call -- said feelings were "very mixed" and that players "left pretty undecided."

According to a Golfweek report, players who were swayed by Clark's speech at the January 21st meeting of the PAC have since backed off their opposition of the ban providing more of a chasm between opinions.

While litigation is not something Manion and the players want to face, they believe they have some wiggle room within the stingy guidelines laid out by the notoriously staunch PGA Tour suits.

"I think the Bob Gilder case against the PGA Tour is the leading case here, that you cannot do something arbitrary and capricious," Manion said in reference to the 1991 case between Gilder and other pros vs. the PGA Tour that dissented to a proposed rule change on square grooves. Gilder et al are believed to have won the case although it was settled out of court, but in the end, square grooves were outlawed.

As much as Manion believes his clients have a case, the USGA and PGA Tour believe they have done their due diligence to prove just the opposite.

"Our mission is not to avoid legal challenges," said USGA president Glen Nager in announcing the affirmation of the rule "Our mission is to determine the appropriate rules for the game that make the game strong for the long-term. ... We have looked at this from the legal perspective, as well, as we feel confident of our position."

Legal precedent also seems to be on the Tour's side, according to Marquette University professor of sports law, Matthew Mitten.

"It would be a difficult legal challenge for (Manion and his clients) to win," Mitten said. "Historically, courts have been very deferential to sports governing bodies to regulate what they determine to be the rules of the game and to regulate playing equipment. There's a recognition that sports are unique and you've got to have uniform rules and that there needs to be an independent governing body that has to take the necessary steps to preserve the integrity of the game and its competitive balance. As long as they have independently exercised its judgment in prohibiting anchoring and they have a rational basis for coming to that conclusion, courts generally are not going to intervene. They're certainly not going to substitute their judgment for that of the sport's governing body."

The hope that Tuesday's meeting would provide some sort of clarity in an already murky case proved futile. The latest reneging emanating from the PAC along with the players' decision to seek legal counseling give us a hint that the Tour may actually roll over and accept the ruling bodies' decision.

Those affected most by the ban, it appears, will not.

Chris Chaney is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based sportswriter. He has written for multiple outlets including WrongFairway.com, Hoopville.com, The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer and The Clermont (OH) Sun.

Follow him on Twitter @Wrong_Fairway.

Tiger in a Dead Sprint to Five Victories, but is it His Fastest Ever?

Tiger in a Dead Sprint to Five Victories, but is it His Fastest Ever?











Adam Fonseca May 29, 2013 3:46 PM




COMMENTARY | If Tiger Woods wins the 2013 Memorial Tournament this week, it will not only mark his fifth victory of the year, but it will be the fastest he has ever reached five victories in a season.

That fact alone is almost mind-boggling, especial
ly when discussing a talent the likes of Woods. In 2000, arguably Tiger's best year on Tour where he won an astounding nine times, he didn't record his fifth victory of the year until winning the US Open on June 18. This week's Memorial Tournament will conclude on June 2, barring an unlikely Monday finish.



A victory this week will not mark the fastest Tiger has accumulated five wins at any stretch during the year, however.

After winning the Farmers Insurance Open on January 28 of this year, Tiger has won four times in 105 days, most recently at The Players Championship on May 12. If he wins at Muirfield Village, his fifth victory will come 126 days after his first victory of the season.

In 2000, Woods won five tournaments between May 28 and August 27 of that year, or 81 days. His victories included The Memorial, the US Open, the British Open, the PGA Championship and the NEC Invitational. He also won the Bell Canadian Open two weeks later on September 10, 2000, marking his sixth win in 95 days. Pretty impressive stuff.

In 2006, Woods broke his own 'speed victory' record. He won his third British Open title on July 23. Woods then captured his second Buick Open (August 6), his third PGA Championship (August 20), his fifth Bridgestone Invitational (August 27) and his first Deutsche Bank Championship (September 4). That's five victories in a little less than three months, or 43 days. Woods proceeded to win the American Express Championship on October 1, 2006 some 27 days later.

What does this all mean? Woods is winning tournaments at a pace that we have not seen from him since what a 'younger Tiger' did years ago.

He has won four times in seven events on Tour this season, or 57 percent. During his five-win stretch in 2000, Woods played seven tournaments and won five, or 71 percent. In 2006, Woods amazed us all by playing in - and winning - all five tournaments he entered between July 23 and September 4.

As Yahoo's own Shane Bacon reported earlier this week, golf fans are expecting Tiger to win every tournament he enters for the first time in years. It doesn't matter if you are a fan of Woods or not; you cannot overlook the fact that he is literally more likely to win a golf tournament than the opposite. We haven't been able to say that about the World No. 1 in a long, long time.Tiger Woods has won The Memorial five times in his career. He is the overwhelming favorite heading into Jack Nicklaus's tournament once again. Barring a major set-back, there is little reason to suspect that he will not be in the winner's circle again come Sunday.



Adam Fonseca has covered professional golf since 2005. His work can be found on numerous digital outlets including the Back9Network and SB Nation. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife. Follow Adam on Twitter @chicagoduffer.