Guru Alred provides the key to Molinari’s success
IHAVE got a strong feeling that Francesco Molinari is going to be a key man for Europe in this Ryder Cup. I’ve been fascinated, but not remotely surprised, by the impact Dave Alred has had on The Open champion’s game over the last couple of years.
Dave, along with fitness specialist Dave Reddin who also worked with England’s Rugby World Cup-winning team in 2003, is the best and most driven specialist coach I have seen.
This is the man who once asked me if he could take a month out of England duties to travel to Australia and learn how to teach dolphins to perform their tricks! I agreed and when he returned, he made one of the best presentations I have seen about coaching.
His basic premise was if you can teach dolphins to perform and repeat an intricate manoeuvre why not human beings, even prop forwards?
Now Dave is Molinari’s performance coach, part of a four-man team in Paris with the task of ensuring their man arrives at the tee for every session in prime condition. Europe’s players will surely be queuing up to partner Molinari. He hits it so straight, is so accurate and consistent: the dream partner.
Dave immediately drew a direct parallel between Molinari and Jonny Wilkinson, who we worked with so closely over the years with England — Dave also helped Jonny at Toulon, during what were possibly his best years.
He believes they share the same sporting DNA in two key areas which are very rare, even in top-level sports people.
Firstly, they have humility. They both know there is always more to learn and are ready to explore to improve. Secondly, they are both tough as nails. They will not let anything stand in their way when it comes to improving themselves and can be quite belligerent.
The interesting thing is, those two qualities are usually mutually exclusive. Many have the humility — and there are some who have that mental toughness and killer instinct — but a combination of the two is rare. As a fanatical golfer I was keen to hear how Dave and Molinari have prepared.
The first thing they did on arriving in Paris was to go through the last round he played — three under par at the Tour Championship last Sunday. Shot by shot, real detail to see where improvements can be made.
They do it after every round — good, bad or indifferent — and don’t move on until that last shot has been analysed and lessons learned. Then came the specific preparation for this course — 7,331 yards, par 72, with narrow fairways and medium rough.
Their estimation is that this course on this particular week in the Ryder Cup format is all about the shot to the green and giving yourself every chance of birdie — but more importantly, putting maximum pressure on the opposition.
So they have been preparing every conceivable shot into every green, every angle, every distance. The other thing Dave does with Molinari is to ask him to practise some of the most difficult and unlikely shots he will ever encounter on a golf course. Shots he will probably never have to play in his competive career.
I remember him doing something similar with Jonny and the England kickers. He once challenged them to execute 40-50 yard spiral kicks that don’t go more than five or six feet off the ground. Very difficult, but it can be done.
It’s going to be very tough in Paris, but it is fascinating for Molinari to have Dave in his corner.
England’s Rugby Football Union’s loss has been golf and Team Europe’s gain.