The 2015 of golf closes with the Tiger Woods birthday, who today, December 30, crosses the threshold of 40 years, archiving the worst sports season of his life. But the balance of his 20-year career, which began at a professional level in 1996, is obviously ultra positive for the champion from Cypress, California: 14 majors, 79 tournaments on the American circuit and over one hundred tournaments around the world are a list of victories that needs no comment. Woods has broken many records, even if he has not reached Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors and Sam Snead's 82 tournament wins, yet in the imagination of many and perhaps in reality he remains the greatest champion of all time. A beautiful Christmas letter appears on his website these days, which still gives hope for his return to the greens, even after three back surgeries in 18 months. Looking back, Tiger wouldn't be able to say whether 5 or 140 years have passed since his first professional tee time, because the age of golf is a bit like that of a dog, it has a double measure. On the one hand it's a fun game that gallops through time; on the other it is a mental commitment without comparison in sport. Today there are two clocks to put back on track for Tiger: that of the body, weakened by aches and pains, and the mental one, which needs an even greater effort. If he closes down, too, he's already given a lot to the world of golf, but we want to believe he'll start roaring again: so best wishes Tiger and get back on the course soon!
2015 also closes with fabulous news for Italy: the Ryder Cup in Rome in 2022. A personal victory for FIG president Franco Chimenti and for those who believed in him, from CONI president Giovanni Malagò to prime minister Matteo Renzi. After the compliments and the drunkenness, however, there will be other boxes to fill in to take stock of this success and the first question to answer will be: how much will this game cost? One thing is certain: in the meantime, the FIG is committed to holding 12 sumptuous Italian Opens. Already in 2016 the jackpot will be 3 million dollars, double compared to last year; but from 2017 and for the next 10 years it will be 7 million dollars, for a total of 80 million. A real mountain of money for an Open that a few years ago was struggling to finance itself at much lower levels. Ryder and the prize pool should act as a magnet for champions and sponsors and much of the hard research has certainly already begun.
But there are other pieces to put in this mosaic: for example the surety for hundreds of millions of euros to guarantee the performance of Ryder itself, the restyling of the Marco Simone Golf at the expense of the property, that is Laura Biagiotti; while on the revenue front, Ryder's TV rights and sponsors cannot be counted because everything belongs to Ryder itself. So what will our incentive be, even in a nutshell? In short, it will be interesting to make a detailed assessment of this game, which is still one of the best we could have hoped to see.
On the other hand, 2016 promises to be full of events, one more exciting than the other, thanks to the rivalry of the new young lions on a global level: world number one Jordan Spieth (USA); number two Jason Day (Australia); number three Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland).
Among the events to remember: the Olympics where golf finally returns after 112 years of absence. What we will see in Rio will be two normal 72-hole stroke tournaments, one for men and one for women. Sixty players for each tournament, based on the Olympic Golf Ranking, the result of the men's Official World Golf Ranking and the women's Rolex Women's World Golf Ranking. The Olympic qualification period began on July 14, 2014 and will end on July 11, 2016. The top 15 male and female golfers will qualify, with a limit of 15 per nation. The remaining places will instead be filled, according to the ranking order, up to a maximum of two athletes per nation, provided that the nation does not already have two or more athletes in the top 4. A golfer and a female golfer are automatically qualified Brazilians, as representatives of the host nation, while each continent will have one golfer for each tournament, if not already qualified according to the other criteria.
Italy is expected to bring two athletes, one of which will surely be Francesco Molinari. The golf appointment in Rio is from 6 to 9 August for women and from 11 to 14 August for men.
Finally, 2016 is also the year of the Ryder Cup. To reconcile the two mega events, the appointment has been slightly moved forward in the calendar: the Europe-USA challenge will in fact be held from 30 September to 2 October. The venue for the competition will be the Hazeltine National Golf Club, in Chaska, Minnesota, USA. In this context we will find Tiger Woods, in the guise of one of the vice captains alongside the captain of the North American team Davis Love III.
Last news, finally: the circuits resume their normal activity, after the Christmas break, with two tournaments from 7 to 10 January. The European Tour will be in South Africa for the SA Open in Gauteng, Johannesburg; the PGA restarts from Hawaii with the Hyunayi Tournament of Champions at Plantation Course in Kapalua, Maui.
