Another week of sensational golf: it's the one offered by Francesco Molinari at the Italian Open, where he stayed in the race until the last hole, then having to give way to the Dane Thorbjorn Olesen. The two players closed the last round with two great results: Olesen 64 shots, Molinari 65 shots, for a total (over 4 days) of 262 and 263 shots respectively, -22 and -21 under par.
As in the best scenarios, everything was decided at the 18th round, where a long putt by Chicco was not enough to intimidate Olesen who, pocketing for par, kept the lead by one stroke. Molinari comes out fortified anyway from this test, just seven days after the prestigious and rich victory in London. With this new placement, the second race of the rich Rolex Series group, the Turinese climbs from twentieth to 14th position in the world rankings and from the top of his place in the standings he prepares to face the Us Open, the second major of the year, between two weeks. “I still have room for improvement – comments Molinari, nice and modest as usual – now I'm taking two days off and then I'll start working again for the next lap. In this match I honestly couldn't give more and I will remember the 18 putt for the rest of my life. The truth is that Olesen was very good and deserves the win." Even the Dane, thanks to the rich Italian jackpot (over a million dollars for the first) takes a big step forward in the world order of merit and returns to the top seventy.
Excellent placings for the two more blue remained on track after the cut. Lorenzo Gagli conquers the 14th place; Matteo manassero the 36th. It should be noted that Manassero and Molinari are the only players to have birdied the last hole in the last round.
It was an Italian Open of the highest level, up to the aspirations of the Federation, the expenses and the route in stages that will lead Italy to host the Ryder Cup in 2022.
On TV, the Gardagolf course and its surroundings appeared to be breathtakingly beautiful, far superior to most clubs, even American ones, which host very important tournaments. From an aesthetic point of view, the place has very few rivals in the world; from a technical point of view the route is perhaps relatively easy, but for this reason more spectacular.
The television footage of the very long coverage (30 hours of live) offered by Sky is beautiful. It's just a pity that pay TV has given up this week also on broadcasting the American tournament in progress, the Memorial, where Justin Thomas will probably lose his world leadership, to give it back to Dustin Johnson or hand it over to Justin Rose. In pole position, in the classification of the race, Tiger Woods.
