Manassero in driving seat at Wentworth

Golf - BMW PGA Championship:If Martin Kaymer is seen as representing the German efficiency so famous of that country's luxury cars, then Matteo Manassero – displaying an experience beyond his years to claim a share of the 54-hole lead in the BMW PGA Championship here over the West Course – displayed a sleekness and substance long associated with the sports cars of his own country.

On a day when a swirling wind caused players to second-guess themselves on club selection, and some wicked pin placements led grown men to despair, Manassero – the 18-year-old Italian who already possesses two career wins, most recently at the Malaysian Open – manoeuvred his way into a share of the lead after shooting a 72 for 208, five-under-par, to finish alongside Luke Donald.

With danger lurking on almost every corner, and Donald’s fallibility exposed early on by two double-bogeys inside his first six holes, and by Alvaro Quiros running up a triple-bogey seven at the ninth just after assuming the on-course lead, Manassero stayed cooler and more collected than anyone to stake a claim for the European Tour’s flagship title. Quiros’s bad day was made worse with another triple bogey eight at the 17th as he slipped off the pace.

As Rory McIlroy – who made the biggest jump up the leader board with a 68 for 214, enabling him to leapfrog 36 places from his overnight position to tied-18th and just six shots adrift of the leader – remarked: “Matteo’s game is great. He plays like a 35-year-old. That’s the great thing about him, he knows his limitations and he is still only 18 and has plenty of time to get longer and to get stronger. He has a great overall game, very solid, very smart, with a great touch around the greens.”

With Darren Clarke also feeling the wrath of the course, stymied by a quadruple bogey eight on the eighth where he twice put balls in the water with no more than a sand wedge in his hand en route to a 74 for 215, McIlroy assumed the role of leading Irish player heading into the final round. Shane Lowry, playing alongside his old amateur team-mate, shot a 69 for 215 which moved him up to tied-23rd.

If it weren’t for a bogey at the 18th, where he put his second shot into the hazard running in front of the green, McIlroy could have made an even more significant move.

Still, with four birdies, including back-to-back birdies at the 16th and the 17th before that dropped shot on the last, McIlroy moved onto the fringes of contention and sent him off to the Champions League final at Wembley in good spirits.

However, McIlroy was critical of the course set-up and particularly the pin positions. “I don’t know who is setting the golf course up this week, but some of the positions out there today were just brutal. I mean, you couldn’t get close to them at all. A couple of tees were moved up that wasn’t necessary. I don’t really know what they were thinking, or what they thought was going to happen, but for people to come in and pay their 35 quid or whatever it is for the weekend, they want to see players making birdies and hitting great shots and hitting it close.

“Some of the holes out here you just can’t do it.

The course is fine, it is the set-up, where they put the pins and where they put some of the tee boxes, that’s just a bit strange.

You’re thinking to yourself, ‘where are they going with that?’ It is one of those things. I think the golf course is great, very good. It can just be set up a little better,” opined McIlroy.

In fairness to Donald, who has an opportunity to take over the world number one spot from Lee Westwood, he recovered from a horrible front nine to get back into a position of strength. Donald recorded double-bogeys at the second and sixth and turned in 40 strokes (five-over), before responding with birdies at the 11th, 12th, 16th and 17th and then made a superb par save at the 18th after driving into the trees off the tee to come home in 32 for a 72 to finish alongside Manassero.

For sure, quality has risen to the top with Manassero sharing the lead with the world number two and no less a figure than world number one Lee Westwood immediately behind them. As Westwood put it, “it has the feel of a Major championship where you’re just hanging around, trying not to make too many mistakes…I’m edging my way in there. It’s not the kind of golf course, the way it is set up, that anybody is going to run away with it.”

So, Manassero heads into the final round trying to defy the world number one and two. Is he strong enough mentally to finish the job? “I don’t know. I don’t know. We’ll see. I personally don’t think it’s going to be a mental battle out on that course. I think it’s going to be the guy that plays and putts better that’s going to win…I’m certainly not as strong mentally as them because they have more experience. But I’ll try to fight and do as well as I did today and the other two days I played. I will definitely try,” replied the Italian teenager.

Collated third round scores and totals from the BMW PGA Championship,
Wentworth GC, Wentworth, England

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in boldpar 71):

208Matteo Manassero (Ita) 66 70 72, Luke Donald 64 72 72

210Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 70 69, Lee Westwood 72 69 69

211Simon Dyson 71 68 72, Bradley Dredge 68 74 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 70 69

212Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 73 69, David Horsey 70 68 74, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 67 76, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 70 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 66 75 71

213Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 70 70 73, Peter Whiteford 71 69 73, Anders Hansen(Den) 69 72 72, Ross Fisher 75 68 70, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 71 70 72

214Martin Wiegele (Aut) 77 65 72, Rory McIlroy 76 70 68, David Howell 71 71 72, Jamie Donaldson 71 71 72, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 71 74

215Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 71 67 77, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 74 71 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 74 71 70, Colin Montgomerie 69 75 71, Rhys Davies 74 70 71, Darren Clarke 69 72 74, Shane Lowry 74 72 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 75 68 72, Ian Poulter 68 74 73, Paul Casey 72 71 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 74 72 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 72 73

216Jamie Elson 72 71 73, Robert Rock 73 71 72, Matthew Morris 75 71 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 71 70, Steven O'Hara 74 71 71, Oscar Floren (Swe) 67 77 72

217Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 70 73, Marcel Siem (Ger) 77 69 71, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 74 71 72, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 71 71 75, Ross McGowan 68 74 75

218Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 75 71 72, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 71 70 77, Tano Goya (Arg) 77 69 72, Kenneth Ferrie 69 75 74, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 74 69 75

219Francesco Molinari (Ita) 75 71 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 71 78, John Parry 71 71 77, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 76 68 75, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 71 73 75, Michael Hoey 71 74 74, Paul Broadhurst 76 69 74

220Graeme Storm 74 71 75, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 73 73 74

221Mark Foster 71 75 75, Seve Benson 74 72 75

222Jason Levermore 74 72 76

224Greig Hutcheon 74 71 79

225Scott Jamieson 71 69 85

227 Gareth Maybin 74 70 83, Scott Strange (Aus) 72 71 84