Francesco Molinari wins the 73rd Italian Open, fourth success in his career, second national tournament. It's a wonderful, spectacular, painful victory won in front of Masters champion Danny Willett on the last putt of the last hole. The Italian Golf Federation could not have dreamed of more: the richest Italian Open ever seen so far, won by an Italian; an impressive number of visitors to the Royal Park of Monza and the return of Super Chicco. What a show! The last 18 holes at the Golf Club Milano were truly beautiful and the outcome was uncertain right up to the end, even if Molinari earned a shot over Willett on hole one and never lost it again. Well done the Frenchman Alexander Levy, who played inside with the English and Italian and who finished in seventh position.
On this occasion Francesco also takes a good revenge on the captain of the European Ryder Cup team, Darren Clarke, outclassing all 7 team members present in the race in the standings. His stellar result is -22 strokes under par, Willett's -21 strokes.
“It was beautiful – says Chicco – I felt the responsibility of all these people who were rooting for me. I got off to a good start, gained up to 4 shots, then Danny caught me again at 13, returning to within one. From that moment I was afraid on every shot. At 18 I knew he was going to hole up and so I told myself I couldn't go wrong and he did. I haven't won for four years, a very long fast. I hope it won't be as long since my next victory. The 2016 Ryder won't be for me anymore, yet today I felt emotions comparable to the 2012 Ryder”.
Unfortunately the selections for the Europe-USA challenge are now closed. The race will be held at the end of September and Clarke made his wild card entries known when he was required to. There is still regret for a victory that came just a couple of weeks too late, otherwise Francesco would be in the team again this year.
In any case, this 2016 edition of the Italian Open pays off for everything and will remain memorable. The race had started badly, with the weather acting up, forcing the organizers to put various suspensions of the game and to cram the various laps into the short time free from the rain. However, on Saturday and Sunday came the calm after the storm, indeed, the explosive joy after the storm.
With this success Francesco pockets a nice prize of 500 thousand euros. The total bet was three million euros, double compared to last year's million and a half. As we have already written several times, they will become 7 million in 2017 and so on for ten consecutive years. Then we will see if golf, in Italy, will eventually have made the leap that its supporters and enthusiasts hope for.
Due to the substantial amount collected and the high-level field, Molinari should return to the top 50 players in the world, going from number 65 to number 45. A position that belongs to him, for his superlative game. Yesterday even the putter never let him down, demonstrating that the two-year militancy on the Pga Tour fortifies his character. Returning to the top 50 in the World Ranking means enjoying exemptions for almost all the most important tournaments, starting with the Majors and the WGCs. The Turinese also rises to 19th position in the Race to Dubai, the classification of the European tour.
To close, we underline that Molinari is the first Italian to win his home Open twice since the race became part of the European tour in 1972. His first victory dates back to 2006.
