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TRANSITIONS CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 16, 2011Matteo ManasseroPALM HARBOR, FLORIDA PHIL STAMBAUGH: We welcome Matteo Manassero, 17-year-old from Italy into the media center. Matteo last year became the younger winner on The European Tour and is making his second appearance on the PGA TOUR this year after a tie for ninth at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, and this is your first time to Tampa and first appearance in Transitions. Maybe a few comments about coming here for this event? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yes, it's very good to be here. Obviously I want to thank obviously Transitions, great sponsor, that give me the invite to play here. It's obviously a good opportunity, as I say, for me to be here to try to get some points, some World Ranking points and see if I can get in Augusta. So it's just very good. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Maybe your early impressions of Innisbrook. MATTEO MANASSERO: Early impressions are great. It's a fantastic golf course. It's different. It's different I think from a usual Florida course. I like it. It can kind of look like some European courses, too. So I'm liking it. PHIL STAMBAUGH: And your game coming in this week. MATTEO MANASSERO: My game coming in is good. I had a good week in Accenture and then I came back home. I had some more practice, so I'm pretty positive for this week and see what happens. Q. What's your schedule going forward after this week? MATTEO MANASSERO: It will be Bay Hill next week and hopefully after that I will stay out here in the U.S. in probably Orlando, have a week of practice and then go to the Masters. Q. What if you're not in the Masters? MATTEO MANASSERO: If I'm not in the Masters, I'll come back home and maybe play an event back down in Asia for The European Tour. Q. Have you worked out what you have to do this week and next? MATTEO MANASSERO: I haven't actually, but I'm obviously focused on that. I'm focused on making two good tournaments. I'm pretty close. I'm not far away. So it's not going to be something impossible. So I'll give it a try. Q. What parts of your game are you working on the most right now? MATTEO MANASSERO: I'm working physically, when is not the game but it really involves the game. There's a lot involved in the game to get some yardage to carry with the driver, which is obviously important in courses, maybe like Doral, or even Augusta, those kind of courses. Then on the putter, that's what I'm working a lot to be always more and more consistent and not have any rounds in which the putter doesn't work at all. So try to be more consistent on the greens. Q. As you try to get more length, is it something you're concentrating more on the strength of your body or are you doing anything -- MATTEO MANASSERO: I'm not doing much on the swing. I'm just training physically and get some strength and then you know, the swing changes a little bit, because of that. Q. What are your expectations coming into this event? MATTEO MANASSERO: My expectations, I'm not thinking much. I'm thinking about making a good week and the result that is going to come will see that obviously I'm a lot focused on getting in the Masters and get a good -- four good scores here is going to help a lot, so that's what I'm trying to do. Q. How do you feel about playing with Sergio? MATTEO MANASSERO: It's very good. We are good friends. We played quite a lot before together, even in Europe, the British Open, too. We are quite friendly and know him well. It's definitely a great pairing. Q. Are you a fan of his, sort of hoping that he gets back to where he was? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, absolutely. I've always been a fan of him. He's a great guy and he's a fantastic golf player. And he's had a bad moment but definitely you can see -- everybody can see he's coming out of this moment. He's been playing well and he's been making some good scores. And I think that he's definitely coming out of this and I definitely want him to get back to winning golf tournaments and to get back as he was. Q. Can you see a little of Sergio in yourself, back when he was 19 and just turn pro? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, because we started very young both of us. We turned professional very young. We kind of make the same type of career, winning the British Amateur and then turning professional, getting the card the same, the first year, and get a win very soon. So it's kind of similar career, yeah, absolutely. Q. He played in The Ryder Cup when he was 19. That's two years, right? MATTEO MANASSERO: I'm still in time; I'll try to do that. Q. Was there ever any thought to kind of take a college route or amateur route, or did this happen, turning pro, faster than you thought? MATTEO MANASSERO: There was a thought. There was a thought, because you know, it wasn't immediately about turning professional before actually playing well in the British Open when there, I thought I was turning professional. That was the right decision. Before, I was thinking about maybe coming a few years here and make some college golf, which is I think a great preparation for professional life. You play a lot of tournaments. You play a lot of competitive tournaments, but, you know, turning professional so quickly, I was still after two years of school, so I wouldn't have come to college before 19. So it would have been too late for me. Q. Has Sergio given you any kind of advice or guidance about what it's like being a pro so young? MATTEO MANASSERO: I mean, when I played with him the first time in the British Open, I still wasn't sure about what was going to happen. And so we just -- we were just speaking about, how was my life, how I was enjoying golf and this stuff. I haven't seen him, but I lost him a little bit when I turned professional because he was playing out here. He stopped then and I saw him when he came back -- when I won, actually, in Castellon. Q. Being so young, do you have any challenges when you travel, especially over here, like are you allowed to rent a car? MATTEO MANASSERO: No, I have many challenges. Q. Do you have your license yet? MATTEO MANASSERO: No. Q. You don't have a driver's license? MATTEO MANASSERO: No, 18. (Laughter) That's a big challenge. Q. What are some of the other ones? MATTEO MANASSERO: Well, I mean, your minor age, you can't do a lot. But I'm turning 18 now, so I can do a little bit more, especially Italy, get my driver's license and everything. Over here, it's 16 years old, but not in Italy, so I couldn't get it. Q. Do you even have a driver's permit? MATTEO MANASSERO: You can't start anything it before 18 years old in Italy. So you actually start all of the process at 18 years old to then get it probably nearly 19, the license. Q. So you do see the irony in the fact that you can't drive, but you've already won a professional golf tournament. MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, it's definitely strange. (Laughter). Q. Have you seen sat behind the wheel of a car? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah. Q. So you broke the law -- okay. (Laughter) MATTEO MANASSERO: I'm trying to drive at the moment. I'm doing driving, how do you call, practice. I'm doing some practice instead. You can't get it immediately. So that's what I try to do. (Smiling). Q. Do you have a car picked out that you want to buy? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yes, I'm going to buy a BMW. Q. What kind of BMW? MATTEO MANASSERO: There is some restrictions in Italy, the first year you get the license. Q. Can't buy a fast car? MATTEO MANASSERO: Exactly. There's some law that says you can't buy such a big car -- well, I wouldn't buy a Ferrari anyway. Q. So who drives you around? One of your parents? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah or my caddie. Q. Don't let Sergio do it. MATTEO MANASSERO: Goes fast? (Laughter). Q. How did you celebrate your first win? MATTEO MANASSERO: Doing nothing. I came back home. No, I had a dinner with my dad and some few friends that were there, a nice dinner and I came back home and was very, very tired. I've never been so tired probably. You know, a victory and tense day like that, it takes a lot out of you. But it's so special to win. Q. Do you still have chores at home, like make the bed, clean your room, wash the dishes? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, I'm not really a big fan of that. (Laughter). Q. Parents still make you do that? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, they still do that. Q. Why a BMW? Why not a Ferrari? MATTEO MANASSERO: That's what I was saying; you've got some restrictions. But I don't really want to go that fast. I don't think I'm really prepared to go that fast. Q. What about when the restrictions are lifted, or how old do you have to be? MATTEO MANASSERO: You have to pass one year before you can buy normal cars -- normal cars, faster cars. Yeah, past one year driving. Q. So when you're 20, you'll get a Ferrari? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, probably just before. Q. Let me make sure I understand. So BMW is okay, but a Ferrari is out? MATTEO MANASSERO: BMW is perfect. Q. That's going to be your starter car? MATTEO MANASSERO: It's probably going to be a Mini because of the restriction and then it's going to be a BMW. But I'm thinking about a fast car, and I said Ferrari. Q. Who travels with you? MATTEO MANASSERO: It depends. Either my coach, either some of the parents. It just depends. Q. Who is with you this week? MATTEO MANASSERO: My dad. Q. What's his name? MATTEO MANASSERO: Robert. Q. You said you walk a lot when you're home, you walk around town a lot; do you get recognized more? MATTEO MANASSERO: A little bit more. But in Italy it's different. You know, if you're a kind of normal football player they would recognize you. Golfers, it's different. When you're walking into the golf club, everybody recognizes you, yes, but around in town, it's a bit different. Sometimes it happens though. Q. How many people live in Verona? MATTEO MANASSERO: Maybe 300,000. Q. When you talk about your game and extra yardage, do you feel as though you're long enough now? MATTEO MANASSERO: I'm getting longer. So when I turned professional last year, I wasn't quite ready on that sense. I'm getting much better now. I've done a very good training, a month training with my physio and he actually helped me a lot. I'm feeling really that I'm gaining some yardage and some power on the golf swing. So I'm getting there. Still obviously not as long as I want to, but you know, I'm not a kind of player that needs that much of a yardage. I will never be a long hitter. So I just want to gain some yardage that will definitely help me. Q. Some kids, especially over here, they grow up just bashing it as far as they can and then work on where it's going later. Were you the opposite when you started, were you more placement? MATTEO MANASSERO: Probably yes. Because -- it's probably just because I started very early to play tournaments and to play competition that probably I didn't have the opportunity of just working on hitting the ball far and enjoy that sense. But I always played and compete against other guys. I think it I was competing with the other guys and they were hitting it much farther so I had to hit it all the time on the fairway and on the green to stay alive. Q. Just wondering, your English is so good, did you take that in school or do any outside work on it? MATTEO MANASSERO: I took that in school. I learned the basics in school and that helped me a lot. But obviously getting more fluent is travelling, and in Europe, quite a lot of English and Spanish there. That's how I got more fluent. Q. Did you enjoy working on your short game when you were younger or do you view it as a necessity if you wanted to succeed? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, well, especially when you are 6, 7, 8 years old, that's all I was doing, chipping and putting. That's what most of the kids do. Definitely the more you achieve, the more you putt and the more it helps. Obviously everybody here, every professional golfer speaks about the short game. That's the only part that you're never satisfied on, that you want to do better. Q. So do you enjoy that more than practicing hitting balls on the range? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yes, I kind of enjoy a lot chipping, especially. That's a part of the game that I really like to train and try new things. But kind of everything. Q. You talk about playing tournaments young, how old were the kids you were playing against? MATTEO MANASSERO: Probably the national team started -- well, national competitions, ten, probably, playing against guys who were 14, something like that. So it was a big difference at that stage. Q. You'll probably never hit the ball as far as Alvaro. MATTEO MANASSERO: I will never. (Laughter). Q. What do you think of the game of Francesco? MATTEO MANASSERO: Similar to mine. Very similar players. We are steady players. We hit the ball on the fairway, on the greens and that's our strength. We are precise and hit a lot of good shots. And then it's not easy to make a score then it. Obviously it helps but it's not easy to make a lot of putts, and it gets frustrating, because you need a lot of good shots. You feel you can make 12 birdies, but you make just four. That's what happens. But we have got a similar game, and I'm with the idea that hitting the ball always in the right spot, it's the way to play the game. Q. How far did you carry the ball with your driver at last year's Masters and how far now? MATTEO MANASSERO: I gained maybe eight yards, around there, ten maybe. So definitely from the Masters last year, I've improved. Q. Were you able to hit any of the par 5s in two shots or did you lay up on all of them? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah. Q. Lay up? MATTEO MANASSERO: Well, the second was just out of reach maybe. But it depends a lot on how it plays. 13 and 15 were reachable. Q. Hit hybrid in? MATTEO MANASSERO: Hybrid, yeah. You don't need anything else on those greens. If you have the hybrid, it's okay. If you don't, you lay up. Q. Who is the best player you've played with in a tournament? MATTEO MANASSERO: I would say Mickelson. I played with Watson, so, you can't take him out of being one of the best golfers in the world. That are still playing on TOUR now, I would say Mickelson is very special. The way he plays the game is special. He can hit every kind of shot and it's a lot of fun to watch and to play with. Q. Kind of what I was leading to, playing with Tom at Turnberry, have you played with someone who hit the ball as cleanly as that? MATTEO MANASSERO: No. That tournament, I obviously saw him in some video tapes and everything, so I kind of know what he did, but I didn't obviously in his era. When I played with him those two days, it was just fantastic. He was hitting the ball perfect. He was hitting it in the exact right spot all the time. He was making putts. So he actually played as a winner. He played the tournament fantastically. It was very, very impressive. Q. So the age difference of the boys on the national team, Tom would be the oldest, right? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yes. Q. You were first on the national team at 10? MATTEO MANASSERO: I was 12 or 13. They can't get you in the national team so early so they have to make you wait a little bit to travel and everything. At 10 I was playing national Under 12 competitions, those kind of things. PHIL STAMBAUGH: Thank you very much. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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