In US Open’s first group, Matteo Manassero feels Pinehurst’s bite, ‘as it can happen here’
The course always wins. It’s the story of nearly every U.S. Open and most majors, especially here. The sandmined waste areas and slippery green humps always lurk at Pinehurst No. 2, waiting for the unwary.
Thursday, on the opening morning of the Open, they claimed their first victim in the first group of the first day.
Matteo Manassero knew what not to do. He’d practiced and planned and prepared from the moment he emerged from the Walton Heath qualifier in England, the same one that launched Michael Campbell on his way to Pinehurst glory in 2005.
And as part of the first group off the 10th tee, dew-sweeping at 6:45 a.m., he found himself standing to the right of the green less than 20 minutes into the U.S. Open, at the base of a steep slope, looking at the same shot he’d just hit — already his sixth, after his fifth lost momentum on the slope in the dampness and the grain, teetered at the top and rolled all the way back down to him.
The sun was barely up, and No. 2 was fully awake.
“We know that can easily happen,” Manassero said. “People are going to lose shots around the green, everybody.”
Manassero knew he was in trouble, right from the start. He hit his opening tee shot right, into the scrub, and overcooked his second shot too far down the left side, leaving his view of the pin blocked behind a tree. His third shot went into the bunker short right, and his sand shot landed on the green but rolled down the slope. As did his attempt to putt it back up the hill.
He didn’t even wait to see it stop before he started back to the bag. New club. Same shot.
“The bunker shot wasn’t that difficult, really, but it’s Pinehurst,” Manassero said. “It kind of came out a little right, and then it trickled down, and then it’s 7 in the morning and still a bit of moist in the ground. I didn’t get my putt up. It came back.”
Manassero shrugged.
“I hit them all. That’s what it is.”
This is what happens at Pinehurst, the threat and the challenge that’s different from other major venues where the thick rough or slippery greens — not that these are slow, by any stretch — are the defense. There are so few places to land the ball on Donald Ross’ most diabolical ball-repelling greens, and so many things that can go wrong, that the impromptu redo is a known occupational hazard.
Manassero knew. It happened to him during his practice rounds and it happened to others Thursday and it will happen to others throughout the weekend. But in the U.S. Open proper, it happened to him first.
For the 31-year-old former prodigy, the struggle was insignificant, by comparison. He’s still both the youngest and the second-youngest winner on the European Tour as a 17-year-old in 2010, a summer after he was the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters and the youngest to finish as low amateur at the British Open.
That’s almost a career, right there. He was touted as the next great Italian golfer, a potential Ryder Cup star, only to go 11 years between wins. At one point, he missed 15 cuts in a row. Search for his name, and Google suggests, “What happened to Matteo Manassero?” There’s a long list of pros who haven’t made it back from that. But he made six birdies in the final eight holes of his qualifier just to reach his first major in eight years.
And then that major began with a triple-bogey. And a double-bogey two holes later. He was 6-over par through five holes, struggling off the tee, and went through another rough patch on his back nine before finishing par-par-par to end up with a 9-over 79.
That was tied for the worst round of the morning with Phil Mickelson, and they had famous company: Justin Thomas and Sahith Theegala staggered to matching 7-over 77s.
“It can go so far the other way here, the wrong way,” said Tiger Woods, who was left frustrated by a 4-over 74. “It’s just so hard to get back.”
If nothing else, Manassero learned his lessons and was able to apply them. By the time he’d reached the 8th green, his 17th hole, he faced a nearly impossible chip up a 45 degree slope. He had missed the green left, and the pin was perched atop a false front at the far left edge. From where he stood, not only could he not see the hole, he was looking up at the flag.
There were two options: roll it up the hill with a putter, or stub it into the slope with a closed-down lob wedge. Neither offered any margin for error. He hit the wedge, and the ball hit the upper half of the slope, bounced once on the green and rolled 5 feet past the pin — as fine a shot as could be expected under the circumstances and conditions, navigating the finest of margins.
“I have to bounce once off the green and then the second bounce on the green,” Manassero said. “You can never bounce twice off the green or it won’t go up. So yeah, I kind of had that in my mind and I executed well.”
Too late, perhaps, but some measure of revenge for his travails to start his round.
“It was just a hard day,” Manassero said. “As it can happen here. You can have a hard day and it becomes a tragic day on the golf course.”
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This story was originally published June 13, 2024 at 2:41 PM with the headline "In US Open’s first group, Matteo Manassero feels Pinehurst’s bite, ‘as it can happen here’."
