Ryder Cup: After guiding Continental Europe to victory in the Hero Cup, Francesco Molinari is hoping to represent his nation at the Ryder Cup.
As playing captain in the first iteration of the team tournament, which was designed to offer potential Team Europe picks experience playing in team events before the twice-yearly match with the USA, the 2018 Open winner oversaw a 14.5-10.5 victory against Great Britain and Ireland.
The fact that this year’s competition will be held in Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club will give Molinari, a member of Europe’s 2018 and 2021 teams, added incentive to participate.
“Obviously it’s there,” said Molinari, who earned 3.5 total points from his fourball, foursomes, and singles matches out of a possible 4. For me, it serves as a terrific motivator.
“I must exercise caution because the destination is far away, there is a lot of golf to be played in the interim, and there are many intermediate targets to achieve.
“I just need to concentrate on my game because it has obviously improved from before. So perhaps I’ll be in Rome and play some decent golf.
“It would be amazing to live in Rome,” said Molinari
The opening point of Sunday was recorded for Europe by Molinari’s 3&2 triumph over Shane Lowry as they started the singles at Abu Dhabi Golf Club needing just 4.5 points to win.
On the final day, Great Britain and Ireland had some early success thanks to captain Tommy Fleetwood’s 3&2 victory over Thomas Pieters and Tyrrell Hatton’s decisive 5&4 triumph over Antoine Rozner.
However, once results from other regions started to trickle in, any thoughts of overtaking Continental Europe’s lead were crushed.
Although Fleetwood was obviously dissatisfied with the result. The Englishman was gushing about how well his close friend Molinari and his team performed and were able to learn a lot from the competition.
For me, it’s been an incredible experience, Fleetwood added. “I regret that we weren’t able to complete the task, but you do remember and value these experiences forever.”
“All throughout the week, continental Europe performed admirably, and even at the very end, you could see them making the crucial putts.
“Fran, I haven’t been around him much this week—I’ve only played against him—but I know and I’m confident Fran will have done a tremendous job,” Fran said.
Adrian Meronk eventually won the match for Europe by beating Callum Shinkwin by one stroke after holing out on the 18th.
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