Golf: Twin tales of young Masters

TWO young golfing stars headed their different ways last night – 16-year-old Matteo Manassero into dreamland and Rory McIlroy to somewhere he hopes he can get his act back together.

Manassero, the youngest player ever to compete in The Masters, is now the first British amateur champion to make the cut since Sergio Garcia in 1999 and only the second since Peter McEvoy back in 1978.

The Italian, who survived with nothing to spare on three over, is also guaranteed the low amateur prize because the other five all bowed out.

"It's a great honour and a great victory, so I'm really happy about this," said Manassero, who last July came 13th in The Open and now looks set for a huge career when he turns professional next month. Twenty-year-old McIlroy, on the other hand, exited on seven over and had only two birdies in 36 holes – a month after managing only seven in 72 holes in Miami.

"I am just not myself at the moment," he said. "I don't know what is going on – I just need to take a bit of a break and come back with a refreshed attitude. I am getting frustrated very easily and getting down on myself. I just think that I need to go home and get my head sorted."

Back worries are not helping and he added that he might not play again until the BMW Championship at Wentworth in six weeks.

"I just think the whole game is getting to me at the moment. Sometimes I just think I need to get back to the way I was when I was a kid, just going out there and whacking it, finding it and whacking it again."