Boy wonder Matteo Manassero is now at a crossroads

Matteo Manassero is in real danger of being left behind by the new generation of ‘bombers’ in modern golf.

Two years ago, we were proclaiming Manassero as the new star of European golf and a certain member of the European Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles.

He had just broken my record as the youngest winner of the PGA Championship aged 20 years and 37 days – for his fourth victory in four seasons.

But since that heady Sunday afternoon in 2013, Manassero’s career has plummeted and he was nowhere near Paul McGinley’s team.

For a player of his talent, Matteo should not be currently 130th on the Race to Dubai and outside the top 300 in the world.

But the Italian has allowed himself to be intimidated by the longer hitters, and his golf has really suffered.

Now, Matteo has never been a power player, but his game had already been good enough to lift four titles, win the Silver Medal at The Open and be the world’s No.1 amateur.

However, when he went over to America to play in the Majors and WGC events, he felt that his golf was not good enough to compete.

At 276 yards, Matteo is a very short hitter by modern standards. By contrast, Rory McIlroy averaged 321 yards in his seven-shot win at Quail Hollow last week.

Matteo has been tinkering with his swing in order to gain a bit more distance. But he’ll never be a long hitter. You either are or you’re not.

And in the process, he has lost accuracy and lost confidence. If you miss the fairway with his length, modern courses become very difficult.

Being a short hitter in golf is like being a small footballer. You have to be exceptional at all the other things to make up for your obvious shortcomings.

The most worrying thing are Matteo’s putting statistics as he lies 209th out of 215 for average putts per round at 31.1.

At 22, he should be fearless on the greens and he needs to be to compete.

The problem is that he will have spent so much time working on his long game, he’ll have lost a bit of feel with his putter, which he must rectify.

Matteo should be thankful that he has a five-year exemption on the European Tour after his Wentworth success.

That gives him time to rectify where he has been going wrong, but it is not overstating things to say that his career has reached a vital crossroads.