Golf regains color with the return to the field of Francesco Molinari, the Italian champion who this week, from today to Sunday, will play the WGC Mexico in Mexico City. In the 2019 competition calendar, this is the first of the four tournaments of the World Golf Championship, a mini world circuit second in importance only to the majors. The best don't want to miss the wonderful opportunity to earn valid points on each tour and to pocket the rich prizes.
Tiger Woods also plays for the occasion, making his debut in Mexico and fully in focus last week at the Genesis Open, even if he had to settle for 14th place. The pair of rivals Molinari-Woods is therefore back to making the hearts of Italian fans beat faster, after last year's close confrontations at the Open Championship and at the Ryder Cup. On both occasions, the legendary Chicco prevailed, who in the end also became champion of the Europe by winning the Race to Dubai.
The Turinese, recovering from a bad flu, will try to surpass himself on this occasion too. However, golf is beautiful, but diabolical and it is not certain that it will be equally generous even in the face of the same talent and the same commitment.
“I think the only way to emulate what I've done – says Molinari – is to try to follow some of my improvements, without focusing too much on the results. We all know that there are many good players in golf and that the chances of winning are low, so I could play like last year and not win any tournaments. I'm feeling pretty good in any case and it's obviously nice to be out after such a long break. I can't wait to start my season”.
On the green of the Club de Golf Chapultepec there will be all the best, 28 of the top thirty in the world rankings, with the exception of world number one Justin Rose and Jason Day.
Rose's forfeit will certainly be an extra stimulus for Brooks Koepka, number two, and for Dustin Johnson, number three, who will at least have the opportunity to shorten the gap, but there is also great expectation for Tiger Woods. The phenomenon, who is 41 years old today, is currently number 13 in the ranking, but wants to quickly return to the top ten and if he solves the putting problems revealed in the Genesis Open, he will also be able to think about establishing himself in the tournament for the eighth time and bringing at 19 the victories in the WGC.
Reigning champion is Phil Mickelson, in race number 600 on the circuit and announced in great form after the 44th title of his career signed two weeks ago in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. The large number of favorites include Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, John Rahm, Xander Schauffele and Rickie Fowler. Fewer chances for Rory McIlroy, who still can't find the pace of his best moments. The prize pool is 10,250 million dollars.
The challenge is broadcast live on GOLFTV, the new streaming platform created by Discovery; you can also follow a few hours of the race on Eurosport 2 starting at 23pm.
Meanwhile, the news comes from the world of golf that Steve Stricker will be the US captain in the 2020 Ryder Cup, the 43rd and last edition before the match between Europe and the United States to be held in 2022 in Rome. His appointment came a month after Padraig Harrington's appointment as captain of Europe.
