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TURKISH AIRLINES OPEN

November 4, 2016

Matteo Manassero

Antalya, Turkey

Q. Give us your thoughts on that round?
MATTEO MANASSERO: It was a good round, very similar to yesterday, except yesterday made a couple of long putts and that was it. That was the difference. I played solid yesterday and today. Obviously today, it's never easy the second round. After starting well at a tournament, you want to keep yourself up on top of the leaderboard and that's what I did, so I'm happy with my round. There's two more days, a long way to go still, but if I can keep my solid long game, I'm happy with that.

Q. 70th going into this week in Race to Dubai, obviously you want to get in the Top 60. Do you have a target in mind or just play one shot at a time?
MATTEO MANASSERO: Not really. The target is basically to stay as high as I can on the leaderboard, and I know that -- I actually don't know what I need to get in the Top 60. I just want a good weekend this week and not really overthinking about the rest. It would be a great way to finish the season, playing well here and getting myself in The Race to Dubai, but not too concerned about that. I just want to have a good week here.

Q. Obviously it great to see you back at the sharp end of proceedings where you want to be, that confidence returning to your game. What do you put that down to?
MATTEO MANASSERO: I think it's a lot of things and it's been quite a long process. I would say at the beginning of this year, I had a really deep thought with myself, like I spoke with myself and I just answered a few questions that I needed to in order to keep going, and just basically make a clean sheet and start again from March and onward. It's been a good development since and I'm happy where I'm standing now. As I said, today was not an easy day, but I played really solid and my mind was there all the way. If I can get a few putts to drop, that really has been the only issue to keep me on top of the leaderboards.

But as I said, I'm really happy with all the work I've done on myself more than anything else.

Q. I've got to ask, 23 years old, an incredible amount of highs and also some lows for a young man. What's the best lesson you've learned so far?
MATTEO MANASSERO: Well, the best lessons is that you teach yourself many more things than what everybody else can teach you. When you go through low moments, and everybody is going to go through it; I didn't know that before 2014 and 2015. That has been a great lesson for me, and also, the way -- sometimes our choices, you can go through them, obviously by yourself and obviously with a lot of help from close people, but by yourself is I would say the main lesson.

Q. Are there positive to take?
MATTEO MANASSERO: Obviously ThorbjÃ¸rn is playing great golf but it's still a long way to go and I'm thinking about myself, my game, nothing else, and that is in pretty good shape, so that's the positive I can take out of it.

Q. Is there a little frustration when you see that there are some particularly low rounds, or is there just satisfaction with your application and your patience?
MATTEO MANASSERO: It depends the way you look at it. Probably the beginning of this week, being 8-under after two rounds -- I have to stick with that plan and keep going that way. There's lots of good players here, so I always expect them to make low scores.

Q. You mentioned ThorbjÃ¸rn, and you look at that leaderboard, your position is good. There's ground to make up isn't there now.
MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, it seems like it's going to be really difficult to make it up but as I said, lots of good players, two rounds to go. See what happens. All I can focus on is really my game and trying to finish as high as I can.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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