Apart from the absence of a free lunch, there's nothing that gets the golf writers worked up into a desperate fankle quite like a prolonged play-off, particularly when there is a flight to catch and a budget car hire drop-off point to frantically locate.

As Matteo Manassero and Simon Khan were ferried back to the tee for yet another sudden-death hole in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday, the media-centre profanities tumbled forth in anguished abandon against a backdrop of furious flapping not seen since the pterodactyls roamed the sky. In the end, it was all right on the night. This correspondent wheezed his way on to the last plane from Heathrow and Manassero saved the European Tour's flagship event. It had been quite a week. From the minute Sergio Garcia uttered the words "fried chicken" on the touchy subject of Tiger Woods, the tournament was shrouded in controversy, while George O'Grady's attempts to pour cold water on the fiery affair only fanned the flames as the European Tour's chief executive used the word "coloured". It was like folk were walking about in a freshly manured field. Everybody kept putting their foot in it.

Garciagate, as it has been dubbed, will linger, and reach new levels of intensity when the Spaniard heads to next month's US Open at Merion, but for a BMW PGA Championship that was lolling on the ropes Manassero at least prevented it from falling face first on to the canvas.

Those of us who were at Formby back in 2009 had an inkling we were watching something special when the Italian, at the age of just 16, became the youngest player to win the Amateur Championship. The spectacle was made even more alluring by the fact that he played the game at a refreshingly brisk and purposeful pace. He's not wasted any time, either, in making his mark as a professional. With four tour wins before his 21st birthday, he truly is Europe's bright young thing. When a 23-year-old veteran such as Rory McIlroy states that Manassero is "making me feel old" you know you are dealing with a special kind of talent. Of course, McIlroy, along with the likes of Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Luke Donald, all missed the cut at Wentworth and gave the sponsors, and the tour, even more cause for worry. While Donald's fondness for the PGA Championship cannot be denied, his fellow America-based colleagues don't convince on that front. McIlroy, not for the first time when up against it, looked like he was going through the motions in the cold and wet on Friday, while Poulter doesn't disguise the fact that the West Course is simply not his favourite track. It's just like they are contractually obliged to turn up and play to show how much the European Tour's showpiece means to them, even though the reality is that they would probably be happy to bypass the contest and remain stateside at an increasingly hectic time of the season. As the continent of Europe creaks under a variety of financial strains, the PGA Tour in America continues to offer a huge olive branch and ruthlessly lures in the talent from across the Atlantic. Thorbjorn Olesen, the emerging young Dane who shared ninth in last year's Open and tied for sixth in April's Masters, has gained playing rights there after just a handful of appearances, while tour stalwarts, such as David Lynn and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, are straddling events on both sides of the pond.

The European Tour's mandatory membership obligation is a minimum of 13 tournaments a year. Eight of those are taken up with the four majors and four World Golf Championships – and six of those events are based in the USA. Broken down, the requirement for Europe's leading lights is essentially just five tour events back here and, in the circuit's heartland of continental Europe, there is a concerning lack of regular events capable of attracting the big hitters.

The importance of a strong PGA Championship is vital and, after a turbulent few days, Manassero became its ideal champion; a young, hugely impressive player and personality who underlines the European Tour's long-standing reputation as a fertile breeding ground of talent. Manassero himself is appreciative of the history and the honour of his latest win. His ties with the European circuit have been strengthened by it but it is inevitable that America will come calling again. "I've played a few tournaments in the US, but having this win here I feel like I should keep going (in Europe) till the end of the season," said the event's youngest ever champion.

"I'm going to play Sweden this week, so that says that I want to keep going on the European Tour, but I will travel to America."

The world is very much his oyster and in a week when the spotlight fell on Wentworth for all the wrong reasons, magical Manassero at least ensured that the BMW PGA Championship finally made headlines for all the right ones.