Last call for Francesco Molinari before next week's Masters. It's about the Shell Houston Open, the PGA Tour tournament which kicks off today in Humble, Texas and which sees 156 players in the field, for a prize of 6,6 million dollars, 1,188 million to the first place. The course is a par 72 of approximately 6700 metres.
Molinari still has many positions to climb to get back into the top 50 players in the world (today it is number 65) and has no other exemptions. This weekend he would practically need a victory and it is not easy, given that last week he hurt his wrist, so much so that he withdrew from the Valero Texas Open. However, the Turinese seems optimistic: “I tried a few pitches – he writes on Twitter – and I think I'm at 80%. The situation is continuously improving and should be in place at the start." Let's keep our fingers crossed, because this year Francesco is the only Italian who could access the sacred temple of Augusta. His tee time is at 12,10 (19,10 in Italy) together with the Argentine Andres Romero and the North American Shawn Stefani.
The Australian Matt Jones defends the title, who will have to beware of a large number of top players: from Jordan Spieth to Patrick Reed, from Sergio Garcia, to Jimmy Walker, number 10 in the world and number one in the FedexCup.
It is said that this trophy really does not tempt anyone, that players only use the Houston Golf Club course as a training ground for the Masters. Above all, it is said that whoever wins this week does not win next. It is a legend already debunked by Phil Mickelson, who returns to the competition again this year with the desire to improve his somewhat rusty game.
Finally, the field includes many important Europeans such as Martin Kaymer, Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington and the captain of the 2016 Ryder Cup Darren Clarke.
Evening connections live on Sky Sports.
The European tour rests for the Easter holiday.
