Matteo Manassero triumphs in European PGA at Wentworth

OUT with the old, in with the new.

Matteo Manassero wins PGA

OUT with the old, in with the new.

On a day when much had been expected of Lee Westwood at the BMW PGA Championship at a sun-kissed Wentworth, it was left to a player half his age to take the plaudits.

Victory in the European Tour's flagship event was claimed by Matteo Manassero, the 20-year-old Italian wonderkid, who came through to win a three-man play-off against Simon Khan and Marc Warren at the fourth extra hole.

By this stage, Westwood, who led the field by two strokes after four holes of his final round, was on his way home. With a round of 73, he had blown an opportunity to win the biggest tournament of his career, and he knew it.

FINAL LEADERBOARD

In Manassero, however, the future of the European game looks to be in good hands. The man from Verona had a 69 in regulation play to finish level with Khan, who had a 66, and Warren, who had a 69, on ten under par.

With Warren going out at the first play-off hole, the Italian and the Englishman traded shot for shot before Manassero finally wrapped up victory with a birdie after Khan, winner here in 2010, paid for finding water with his approach shot to the 18th.

"I'm the happiest man in the world right now," Manassero said. "I'm just thinking about being the PGA champion - and that's amazing."

When he won the Singapore Open last year, Manassero became the first teenager to win three times on tour. Now he has a fourth, prestigious title victory also means a place at the US Open and moved him into the top 30 in the rankings. The 677,000 pounds ($1,064,600) prizemoney was almost incidental.

What of Westwood? He had been singing his own praises for the way his short game had improved since he moved to Florida, but when he needed it most, it deserted him.

It is one thing to talk a good game, quite another delivering it. In the space of a day, the former world No1 went from "short-game magician", the moniker given him by Ernie Els, to vanishing act.

This should have been Westwood's domain. He was playing in his twentieth PGA Championship and was surrounded by players way below him on the European Tour's pecking order.

So when he calmly moved into a two-stroke lead over the field after four holes, it seemed as if the crown was Westwood's for the taking. He had started the day one stroke off the lead, but looked in imperious form when he rolled in a putt of about 20 feet to draw level at the 2nd and completed a hat-trick of birdies at the 4th. Cruising at this stage, his world then fell in.

At the 6th, the world No12 chipped long and missed the putt for par and then he missed a three-foot putt for par at the next. In the space of two holes, his momentum died; that of Manassero, Khan and Warren had picked up.

It is when the pressure is really on nowadays that Westwood tends to fold. He hooked his tee shots at the 11th and 12th and missed putts from short range at both of them.

Car-crash golf, when he missed another relative tiddler at the 14th, to fall back to six under par, Westwood's race had been run. Afterwards, he said it was his long game that was off kilter. But there is more to it than that.

The Times