The European golf championship is approaching the grand finale and this week it stops in Monza, from Thursday to Sunday, for one of the most prestigious and richest events of the tour, part of the mini elite circuit of the Rolex Series: the 74th Italian Open , with a prize pool of 7 million dollars, a record figure for our country. On the field are 4 of Europe's best golfers: Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood, Masters champion Sergio Garcia, world number 5 Jon Rham and number 18 Francesco Molinari. Francesco is also the reigning champion and last year the final was thrilling, a thrilling and painful head-to-head with Danny Willett. A replica would really be a dream.
A nice field then, but not as stellar as one could have hoped given the premises. All high-level Americans such as Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas (engaged in Malaysia) or Jordan Spieth are missing, but also European heavyweights such as Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson.
On the other hand, for the small Italian federation, what begins tomorrow is a bet, a challenge launched two years ago with the incredible and unpredictable award of the 2022 Ryder Cup, one of the most important sporting events in the world.
In order to prevail over the other candidates, Italy has committed itself not only to hosting the 2022 cyclopean appointment in Rome, but also to organizing 11 Opens at the highest levels, with a top prize pool of 7 million dollars, plus one, that last year, from 3 million, for a total of 80 million dollars. Really a lot of stuff, if you think that until a few years ago it was hard to find even a single million for the Italian race.
However, putting a lot of money on the plate is not enough to make yourself attractive for highly sought-after and very wealthy athletes, you also need the right date, the one that does not overlap with other important events, the right appeal of the track, international television coverage that satisfies the sponsors . Although the Italian Open is one of the oldest on the circuit, it has never been, as it is today, at the top of the list of the European Tour. The big players have to get used to taking it into consideration, to rewrite their agendas by deciding that stopping in Italy is more advantageous, for many reasons, than going elsewhere. In short, we are only at the beginning of a journey that we will see where it will lead.
At the moment the weather forecasts are favourable, admission for the public is once again free and the sporting challenge should be interesting, especially for those in the top positions of the Race to Dubai, in view of the three final races in November.
There are 132 members, but after the first two rounds the cut will leave only the first 65 classified and equal merit in the race. The winner will take home $1,667 million.
Among the candidates for the podium are six major winners: in addition to Garcia, Josè Maria Olazabal, Danny Willett, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer and Padraig Harrington; 24 of the top 100 players in the world rankings, nine of the top 50. Twenty-two are the players who have defended the European colors in the Ryder Cup and among them the Danish Thomas Bjorn, who will lead the continental team in the next challenge in Paris (2018) against the US formation. Five are the past winners. Out of 132 participants, 87 won at least one tournament on the circuit. Among the names to remember are the Swede Alex Noren, world number 15, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, winner of last Sunday's Alfred Dunhill Links, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, former world number one, Shane Lowry, winner of a WGC, Bernd Wiesberger, Jamie Donaldson, David Lingmerth, Andres Romero, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Victor Dubuisson, George Coetzee, Matthieu Pavon, who scored in the Scottish Open and Paul Dunne, who won the British Masters; the Thais Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the Koreans Byeong Hun An and Jeunghun Wang, the Chinese Ashun Wu. The Italian crowd is large: in addition to Francesco, there is his brother Edoardo Molinari and then Matteo Manassero, Renato Paratore, Nino Bertasio, just to name a few.
