Stuart Manley (born 15 January 1979) is a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

Early life

Manley was born in

Mountain Ash Mountain ash may refer to: * ''Eucalyptus regnans'', the tallest of all flowering plants, native to Australia * Mountain-ashes or rowans, varieties of trees and shrubs in the genus ''Sorbus'' See also * Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf Mountai ...

in the historic county of

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

. He showed sporting promise at an early age, and at age 16 had trials with the football clubs

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

and

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. However, he chose to concentrate on golf, taking a four-year scholarship to the

University of West Florida The University of West Florida (West Florida or UWF) is a public university in Pensacola, Florida. Established in 1963 as part of the State University System of Florida, the university sits on the third largest campus in the State University Sy ...

. The highlight of his amateur career was playing in the 2003 Walker Cup.

Professional career

Manley turned professional in later 2003, and immediately joined the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

, finishing 90th in his first season. At the end of that year he came through the

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

to earn a place on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

for the first time. However, Manley has consistently failed to establish himself at the highest level; he is yet to retain his card by finishing in the top 115 at season's end, and has only regained it via the

in 2007 and qualifying school in 2008, 2010 and 2013. Manley graduated from the

PGA EuroPro Tour The PGA EuroPro Tour was a men's developmental professional golf tour. It was created in 2002 by the merger of two development tours, the EuroPro Tour and the PGA MasterCard Tour, as the Professional Golfers' Association and Barry Hearn's Matchr ...

in 2012, returning to the Challenge Tour in 2013 where he won the Finnish Challenge. He narrowly missed out on winning a European Tour card, finishing 19th on the Challenge Tour rankings. However, he came 10th in European Tour Qualifying School to earn a 2014 European Tour category. Manley hit the headlines in 2013 when, during the third round of the

World Cup of Golf The World Cup of Golf is a men's golf tournament contested by teams of two representing their country. Only one team is allowed from each country. The players are selected on the basis of the Official World Golf Ranking, although not all of the fir ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, he hit a

hole-in-one In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) occurs when a ball hit from a tee to start a hole finishes in the cup. A ball hit from a tee following a lost ball, out-of-bounds, or water hazard is not a ho ...

followed by an 11 at the next hole. Manley had originally believed the hole-in-one had won him a

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

car, only to find out afterwards that the prize only applied to the final round of the tournament. He attributed the following score of 11 to his shock and disappointment at not winning the car, but still eventually ended with an even-par round of 72. In February 2017 Manley finished runner-up in the

Joburg Open The Joburg Open is a men's professional golf tournament that is held in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is an event on the Southern Africa-based Sunshine Tour and co-sanctioned by the European Tour, which attracts a larger prize fund and stronger ...

, one of the Open Qualifying Series events. This finish gave him an entry to the

2017 Open Championship The 2017 Open Championship was a major golf championship and the 146th Open Championship, held 20–23 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. It was the tenth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, which held its first in 1954. J ...

, his first major championship. The runner-up finish matched his previous best in a

event, the 2013 Hong Kong Open, where he lost in a playoff. Despite his early season success, Manley had a poor season and failed to retain his card, returning to the

for 2018. Manley showed some good form in 2018. In May he was third in the

Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9 The Andalucía Costa del Sol Match Play 9 is a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, played in Spain. It is a mixed stroke-play and match-play event, broadly similar to the World Super 6 Perth, the main difference being that the match-play matches ...

after losing 3&2 to

Grant Forrest Grant Forrest (born 19 June 1993) is a Scottish professional golfer. He plays on the European Tour, and won the 2021 Hero Open. Forrest had a successful amateur career which included being runner-up in the Amateur Championship and playing in the ...

in the semi-final. In June he was involved in two playoffs in two weeks, losing in the

KPMG Trophy The KPMG Trophy is a golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, played in Belgium. It was first played in May 2006 as the Telenet Trophy at Limburg G&CC in Houthalen-Helchteren Houthalen-Helchteren (; li, Hôtele-Helichtre) is a municipality located ...

Pedro Figueiredo Pedro Figueiredo (born 13 June 1991) is a Portuguese professional golfer. In June 2018 won the KPMG Trophy on the Challenge Tour. Amateur career Figueiredo had a successful amateur career. At the age of 12, he represented his country at the 20 ...

after Figueiredo made a birdie at the first extra hole and then winning the

Hauts de France Golf Open The Saint-Omer Open is an annual men's professional golf tournament played at Saint-Omer Golf Club in Saint-Omer, France. The tournament was founded in 1997 and was part of the MasterCard Tour a year later, before taking its place on the Challen ...

at the third extra hole when Grant Forrest made a bogey. He was also runner-up in the Northern Ireland Open and finished the season 9th in the Order of Merit to earn a place on the

2019 European Tour The 2019 European Tour was the 48th season of golf tournaments since the European Tour officially began in 1972 and the 11th edition of the Race to Dubai. The Race to Dubai was won by Spain's Jon Rahm, who was also named Golfer of the Year. Scot ...

Professional wins (6)

Challenge Tour wins (3)

Challenge Tour playoff record (1–1)

PGA EuroPro Tour wins (1)

Jamega Pro Golf Tour wins (1)

Other wins (1)

Playoff record

European Tour playoff record (0–1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the halfway cut
''Note: Manley only played in The Open Championship.''

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Youths' Team Championship The European Youths' Team Championship was a European amateur team golf championship for men under 22 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1961. It was played every year until 1982, then every second year. It ...

(representing Wales): 2000 *

Palmer Cup The Arnold Palmer Cup is an annual team golf competition for college/university golfers. From 2018 it has been contested between a United States team and an International team representing the rest of the world. The teams consist of 12 men and 12 ...

(representing Great Britain & Ireland):

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been ...

(representing Wales):

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

(representing Great Britain & Ireland):

(winners) Professional *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing Wales):

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manley, Stuart Welsh male golfers European Tour golfers West Florida Argonauts men's golfers People from Mountain Ash, Wales Sportspeople from Rhondda Cynon Taf Sportspeople from Aberdare 1979 births Living people