Edoardo Molinari was one of Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald’s most trusted lieutenants, and as the statistical guru, one of the key factors in team selection, pairings and course setup, but the modest Italian who was part of the 2010 European side who won in dramatic fashion at Celtic Manor is loathe to take any credit for the success in Rome.
You can read an in-depth feature interview we conducted with the 42-year-old, three-time European Tour winner in the lead up to the Ryder Cup in Rome by clicking here.
“I think the key was the unity in the team,” he said after playing in the Open de España at the weekend. “Everyone was really pulling together, everyone was very motivated to get the job done. Especially our top players, they were really on fire, playing well and really up for it. I think that was a big key and then starting strong. Every match, in the first few hours, we were up almost.
We got off to a good start on Friday morning and that helps massively in the Ryder Cup.”
Many fingers were pointed at US captain Zach Johnson and the preparation or lack thereof which saw the Americans fall to their seventh successive defeat away from home, but when pushed on what mistakes were made by the opposing captain and backroom panel, Molinari refused to be drawn to criticise or second guess the Americans.
“I don’t know, you should ask them,” he jokingly replied, before adding in a more serious tone: “I don’t like to pinpoint what they did wrong, maybe hopefully they’ll do it again in two years time.”
Two years’ time, of course, refers to the next staging at Bethpage Park’s Black Course, on New York’s Long Island. One of the more difficult courses in the United States, Bethpage Black has hosted two US Opens and a US PGA Championship since the turn of the century, and the legendary New York crowds will be out in force at a golf course that is open to the public and many in attendance will be intimately familiar with it.
“Well, it depends very much on how they set it up,” Molinari said, “they can make it as difficult as they want, they have [held the] US Open, USPGA, so it’s a long golf course, it’s a big golf course, but the last few years we’ve actually been longer than the Americans of the tee, so it might even play into our hands.”
Quite who will be leading the European side in 2025 will be decided over the coming months, with Luke Donald already receiving strong support from the likes of past captains Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn to do back-to-back tenures, but whether it’s Donald or a new man at the helm, it’s hard to imagine that Molinari won’t be involved in some capacity as Europe will look to get a first away victory in 13 years.
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