Magnificent Molinari and Red-hot Rose Thomas Bjorn will be sitting at home quietly pleased with the weekend’s outcome. Putting his personal performance at Wentworth aside (a missed cut for those of you wondering), two of his Ryder Cup stable raced to convincing victories either side of the pond. The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth had everything: a player snapping his shaft around his neck, a different player topping a fairway wood (it happens to the very best) and spectators getting in the way of golf balls. However, the story of the week belonged to Francesco Molinari as he atoned several near-misses to claim the biggest victory of his career, ousting Rory McIlroy and Alex Noren in the process. The Italian is widely regarded as one of the best ball strikers on tour, which was clear for all to see as he played flawless golf for much of the week with only two blemishes on his card, one of which was on his very first hole. Another European who played exemplary golf on his way to victory was Justin Rose, who had a birdie putt of 20 feet or shorter on 45 of the 72 holes he played in the Fort Worth Invitational. Just let that sink in for a minute. Most pros would be happy to have hit 45 greens for the week (Rose hit 57), but hitting the ball that close on a consistent basis is simply phenomenal. It’s shaping up to be a classic
With the Ryder Cup just four months to go until Europe battle America for the Ryder Cup in Paris, we thought we’d take a little look at how the teams are shaping up. If you take the world rankings as any sort of guide, you’ll notice that nine of the top 20 are Europeans and eight of the top 20 are Americans. That’s 17 of the world’s top 20 golfers potentially going toe-to-toe in one of the most eagerly anticipated match-ups in Ryder Cup history. |