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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 22, 2011Matteo ManasseroMARANA, ARIZONA PAUL SYMES: Well, welcome, Matteo. Thanks for coming in. You are used to breaking records, but it must be nice to be the youngest to play on WGC this week. MATTEO MANASSERO: It's great to be here. It's great to be in the top 64 plays in the world. After a quick start for me, it's been really, really quick. I'm glad to be here playing with the best player in the world. PAUL SYMES: Do you have to pinch yourself to think you are here playing with these players? MATTEO MANASSERO: It is something I am now getting used to. I had a fantastic year in which I won. I never expected it. I'm now really focusing to this. I'm getting really much involved so I'm liking it. Every single moment you have a step forward to do, which is now obviously getting in the Top 50. So everything is about, you know, getting a new step. So it's not difficult. It's not difficult to understand the level that you are when you are competing with such guys. PAUL SYMES: Just a quick word about the Molinari brothers, perhaps how they have helped you to develop on and off the course, perhaps. Given you a lot of advice, I would imagine? MATTEO MANASSERO: Yeah, obviously. They have helped me a lot. They are good friends of mine. They kind of introduce me to this life, which wasn't easy at the beginning. They have done it. They have done it well. They like to practice me at the course. They have a lot of experience and they have been doing probably for five or six years or so. They are really -- they have been really helpful, yeah. Q. Just a word on your first round opponent, Steve Stricker? MATTEO MANASSERO: Absolutely. He won this tournament before. It is a fantastic player. He has been No. 2 in the world, if I'm not wrong. He has done a lot in this game. It is going to be a very tough match. I will try to do my best and we'll see what happens. Q. How excited are you to play in this format, the fact that it's different from regular 72 hole stroke play? MATTEO MANASSERO: I think it's brilliant. I think having the chance to play match play during a season is something to look forward to. I think match play is a lot of fun. We -- as amateurs, you play a lot of match plays. I did two years ago and when I played -- when I played the amateur. So I am kind of fresh into this, but I don't know what it's like to play against professional match play. So it's going to be a new thing for me, a new experience. But it's definitely a format that I really like and enjoy. Q. It seems every year we get the spotlight on a new youngster coming in. Last year Ryo, last year Rory and now of course you. Just talk about being among the next generation of young guns? MATTEO MANASSERO: It is good. It is good because golf is growing and golf is getting younger. It is something really, really important, I think, for the game. I feel very fortunate to be lucky to be among these great guys and players, guys first of all. We're doing a lot for this game and it's just very good, yeah. Q. Do you have any sense yet of how you got so much better than all the other guys your age? I mean, you just sort of burst on the scene. What did you do differently than others? Obviously there is natural talent working in there. What else did you do to become so successful? MATTEO MANASSERO: Probably obviously the talent and work. These things are, you know -- everybody here have them. So I would say person that are close to you are very important in giving you an education and then grow you as a person and grow you as a golf player. So person that beside you, parents, coach, physical therapist. So it is very important and caddie obviously. They are very important to be a close team and that's what really matters when you turn professional from very young and from amateur life, which is competitive, by it's much different. So I think the person that I have beside me really help me in every single of these things. And that maybe made a little bit of difference. Q. How do you like this golf course and how does it suit your game? Is it an adjustment because it is different from a lot of the courses that you have played? MATTEO MANASSERO: It is different from the courses in Europe. We have don't have many courses like this. I think it's -- I personally really like it. It's kind of golf course when from the second shot on it matters a lot what I do and where you place the ball. So it's a lot of fun for match play and it's going to be very interesting to see some matches; greens are very, very difficult and where the pins will be, it will make a lot of difference. But I think rather than on the tee -- rather from tee the second shot is what really matters and chipping and putting around the green is very, very important here. But, yeah, it's the kind of golf course that I like. It's enjoyable. Q. Do you feel you will be able to hit at a lot of pins or is it better to stay in the middle of the green? MATTEO MANASSERO: They may put some accessible flags, which you really have to go for because you want to have many chances. You would rather use some slopes or hit the ball in the center of the green and then you have an easier putt. Some pins when they -- when they tight the pins in, maybe behind the bunker or something, it is very, very difficult to get there because the greens are firm and slopey. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, again. Play well this week. End of FastScripts |
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