Italian quintessential for BMW International Open which begins today at the Golfclub München Eichenried, in Germany, near Munich. It's about Matteo Manassero, Edoardo Molinari, Marco Crespi, Alessandro Tadini and Andrea Pavan who return to the field hoping to improve their latest performances, starting with Matteo Manassero, who has been in crisis for many months after making his debut on the tour at a very young age and reaping victories every year.
However, all the other Azzurri also need to move up positions in the European ranking and in the world ranking: Edward Molinari returns after the recent withdrawal and three missed cuts; same number of cuts not exceeded by Crespi; Tadini has a fifth place in the South African Open, but his performance is still fluctuating. Pavan finally has to shift gears if he wants to keep the card, because, so far, he has only made 72 holes once out of nine starts.
The event is of a good standard and boasts among the members the number seven in the world Henrik stenson and number 21 Martin kaymer, who kind of does the honors (although he was born in Dusseldorf). Together with them Marcel Siem, Robert Karlsson, Alvaro Quiros, Rafael Cabrera Bello, Pablo Larrazabal, Victor Dubuisson, Gregory Bourdy, Tommy Fleetwood, Tom Lewis, Shane Lowry, Retief Goosen, Thongchai Jaidee, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Thomas Bjorn and finally the Northern Irish Darren Clarke, captain of the European team at the next Ryder Cup. The prize money is two million euros; 333 thousand euros are for the winner.
In the United States, after the hardships of U.S. Open (majors and therefore also on the European Tour), many big names are resting. However, the number of good players is so great that even the Travelers Championship which starts today is all to follow. Among the Europeans in the field is ours Francesco Molinari, who is chasing his first success of the season, after having accumulated a large number of good placings. With him Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey, Luke Donald. He has a long list of North Americans to keep an eye on: from Bubba Watson to Patrick Reed to Brandt Snedeker. Finally, three heavyweights arrive from South Africa such as Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. The course is the TPC River Highlands, par 70 of approximately 6200 meters, in Cromwell in Connecticut. Up for grabs: $6,4 million; 1,152 million first coin.
