Rory in another final round fade-out

RORY McILROY suffered more final-round anguish as Italian teenager Matteo Manassero clinched the Malaysian Open by one shot from Frenchman Gregory Bourdy yesterday.

McIlroy, who squandered a four-shot lead at the Masters with a final-round 80, led by three shots at one stage during the rain-affected third round. But he shot a 72 in that round and a bogey at the 18th in the final round led to a 69, two strokes adrift.

Manassero, 17, holed a nine-iron for an eagle in his 68 and finished 16 under as the leaders played 27 holes on the final day following weather delays throughout the week.

The 17-year-old became the youngest ever winner on the European Tour when he won the Castello Masters in Spain last year and his win in Malaysia is now his second win on the tour.

Frenchman Bourdy finished a shot off the lead after carding a final round 67, while McIlroy finished a shot further back after losing from a winning position for the second time in a fortnight.

An eagle on the par five 10th was the highlight of Manassero’s final round, with two birdies and one bogey adding to his impressive final-round score of four under par.

“It’s a great achievement after just 11 months of professional golf,” he said. “It’s a great achievement for myself and gets me into the majors – I just missed Augusta but playing the other three will be fantastic.”

The Italian believes he has had a great week and is happy with his overall performance.

“I had a really good week from the beginning,” he said. “I didn’t miss many shots apart from the second round when I didn’t play great but I was still able to finish well and get in contention.”

But Manassero also insisted that he now has to start looking ahead to picking up more event wins. “I’m really proud of that and the next target will be winning another tournament and keeping the momentum going. It’s going well and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

McIlroy came out on the final day and extended his overnight lead with a birdie on 10. But he was passed by the end of the third round after a double-bogey at the par three 15th left him on par for the round.

Another double-bogey and two further bogeys hindered McIlroy’s final round to leave him third overall and two shots behind Manassero, and he was unhappy with the result, given his great start to the event.

“At this moment I’m pretty disappointed but it was a good week,” he said. “I started off really well in the tournament. To shoot the scores that I did considering the travelling [from Augusta to Malaysia] is a pretty good effort.”

But overall the Co Down man hailed a good week and was happy with his response to his disappointment at The Masters.

“It has been a good week, I enjoyed coming to Kuala Lumpur,” he said. “I’m disappointed with the result but everything else was positive. I’m proud of myself at how I picked myself up from last week and the way I came back on the back nine (today).”

McIlroy, who won his first European Tour event as a 19-year-old, also praised the performance of Manassero. “Matteo is fantastic. He is a great talent -to get two wins on the European Tour before your 18th birthday is pretty special,” he said.

“He is great and we’ve known he is a great player. He deserves it.”