While loitering near the espresso machine at Celtic Manor a few weeks ago, I ran into an Italian woman who turned out to be a friend of the Manassero family.
It was a doubly fortuitous chance meeting: I could brush up on the language of my parents and find out more about the prodigious talent that is Matteo Manassero.
She told me the sweetest story of how Manassero came to be a golfer in a country where golf is still very much a minor sport.
Turns out that as a toddler in Verona, he wasn’t much for eating, which I can assure you is the stuff of nightmares for Italian mothers.
Young Matteo liked watching television, though, so his mother came up with the idea of feeding him while she plopped him in front of the box.
One day, she tried it but with no success; exasperated, she started channel surfing when the phone rang.
She went off to answer it and returned to find Matteo had eaten all his food.
He was transfixed by watching a golf tournament.
From then on, he’d only eat while watching golf. His parents taped every tournament, and soon that’s all he wanted to watch.
Not long after, when he was 3, his dad bought him plastic clubs and eventually took him to play at a nearby course. The rest is history.
His son is now one of golf’s legitimate rising stars.
I say that not only because he won his first tournament on Sunday, but also because whatever “it” is, Matteo Manassero has it.
Eyes find him when he enters a room. He’s got a presence far beyond his 17 years.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s forever smiling, has the looks of a movie star and is very, very comfortable in his own skin.
After having met him, I wouldn’t call him cocky, because he’s really quite humble, but there’s an unspoken confidence about him -- the confidence of a young man who not only knows where he’s going in life, but also is pretty sure he’s going to get there.
"He seems to be cut from the same exciting mold as Seve Ballesteros or Rory McIlroy," said Irishman Peter Lawrie, who tied for third at the Castello Masters on Sunday, behind Manassero.
"He has that little bit of an aura about him and seems like a superstar going forward. But he also hangs around with the other (golfers) and is an all-round nice guy. He's a lovely fellow and deserves any success he gets."
I first saw Manassero last year at Turnberry. He was playing in the Open Championship at just 16 after having become the youngest player to win a British Amateur title.
He finished tied for 13th on the Ailsa course, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Silver Medal for low amateur.
Understandably, his feats were somewhat lost that week because of the stirring deeds of a 59-year-old Tom Watson, who should’ve pulled off the greatest victory in the game’s history.
But Manassero wasn’t lost on Watson. The two were paired in the first two rounds, and the charismatic young Italian left a lasting impression on a legend.
“He has a beautiful putting stroke,” Watson said, “I wish I had his putting stroke.
“There’s no fear. Those 3-footers just go right in the middle of the hole. Bang! In the middle of the hole.
“But he's also a great striker of the ball. And he knows how to hit the ball, and again, he put the ball in play all the time. He rarely was out of play.
“I was very impressed with him. In fact, I told him on the way down the 18th hole, I said, ‘Don't change anything, just keep enjoying the game and you'll get there.’”
Turns out he got there faster than anyone would’ve thought.
Manassero not only became the youngest player to ever make the cut at the Masters this year, but he also turned professional in the summer and has now become the youngest ever winner on the European Tour.
At 17 years, 188 days old, he eclipsed the record of New Zealand’s Danny Lee, who was 18 years, 113 days old when he won the Johnnie Walker Championship in 2008.
He’s busily trying to get a visa to China so he can play next week’s HSBC event in Shanghai, alongside Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
It’s still early, but after his composed final-round 67 to come from behind and win by four shots in Spain, he’s very much inserted himself into the conversation of who’s the best of golf’s Generation Next.
Martin Kaymer, now that he has a major, deservedly leads the pack, but he’s 25. Rory McIlroy, who’s 21, and Rickie Fowler, who’s soon to be 22, seem like veterans when compared with Manassero.
McIlroy has arguably the purest swing of the young turks, but he’s a streaky putter. Fowler is probably a notch below him. Manassero’s advantage is he’s not just an excellent iron player, but he rolls in 20-footers much like a young Tiger.
In that sense, it may well be his natural rival in years to come will be Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, who just turned 19. Ishikawa also has the aura of a champion.
Manassero’s hero is Ballesteros, and it’s easy to see why he looks up to the dashing Spaniard.
"Seve was a true idol because he was different from the others," Manassero says.
“Seve was playing another golf.”
And what of the perks of stardom? Manassero was asked if he had girls chasing him.
“They think I'm too young, I think,” he said.
“No, I'm not too young!”
