MOLINARI ‘CAN’T BE MAD’ AT BEST FRIEND FLEETWOOD GOLF
▶ Italian says battle with Englishman for Race to Dubai title will not be tetchy affair
Today, Francesco Molinari will rock up to the first tee of the last event of the season and look across at the only man standing between him and the Race to Dubai crown.
The stakes are high, the permutations crystal clear. Should Molinari’s playing partner win this week’s DP World Tour Championship, and he finishes outside the top five, then he will not become the first Italian to clinch the year-long gong.
In most instances, that would make for a terse, maybe even tetchy, battle around the Earth Course. No chance this time, though: Molinari’s Race rival is best pal Tommy Fleetwood.
“I can’t really be mad at him, even if he wins,” the Race to Dubai front-runner joked yesterday.
“We’re too friendly. And it’s Thursday, anyway, so it’s too early to really think too far ahead.
“I’m sure we’re going to have fun, and like any time we’re paired together, all I can do is focus on my game and try to do as good as I can. I don’t know honestly if that’s going to be winning the tournament or finishing top 20 or top 10 or top 5.
“Whatever it is I need to do my best – and then have some deserved time off.”
Molinari has certainly earned the rest. This has been a marquee season for the British Open champion, what with a first major success, victory in the European Tour’s flagship event and another win, on the PGA Tour.
Then, there is the star showing at the Ryder Cup, when he became the first European to take five points from all five matches. Four came via the equally starry partnership with Fleetwood, a pairing dubbed “Moliwood” and producer of one of the best videos on any golf social media account this year.
Going up against his chum, the European No 1, it could make claiming the Race to Dubai even more daunting.
Molinari disagrees. “I know we said this and we’re going to sound really cheesy, but if I don’t win, I’d rather see him win than anyone else,” he said.
“We really are good friends and he’s had an amazing season.
“To think that he won last year, and to come here, still with a chance to win two in a row, it’s incredible, really.
“What I can say for me is that it’s been a great season. However it goes this week, I’m still going to have lots of great memories from what I’ve done this year. And probably the best memory is what we’ve done together with him in France.”
Besides, having Fleetwood alongside him today, at least, means Molinari can easily keep tabs on his closest challenger. “Well, yeah, I’ve got eyes, and there are leaderboards out there,” he said.
“If there were four or five guys in the race, it would be hard to do the math, but basically, even with my poor math, it’s really easy to do the calculations.
“I usually don’t get too far ahead of myself. So in that way, on Thursday morning, nothing is going to be different. I need to go out and play my best and, hopefully on Sunday, I’ll be leading or I’ll be in with a chance.
“And if Tommy wins, fair play to him. He’s had a great season so far, and to win here, it would make him the deserving winner of the Race to Dubai.”
Deserving is right, no matter who ends up with the honour.
“It would mean a lot because it’s a year-race, which makes it a lot harder to win,” Molinari said.
“You can have the best week of your life and win one tournament, but to win a competition that lasts throughout the season, with the amount of talent right now on the European Tour, is something really hard to do, but also still hard to figure out for me how I’m here in this position.
“It feels obviously incredible. I’ve never been here in the past. Really, it’s a dream season for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to close it out.”
I know we said this and we’re going to sound really cheesy, but if I don’t win, I’d see him [Fleetwood] win FRANCESCO MOLINARI Race to Dubai leader
With a couple of decent title defences in the bag this season already, Jon Rahm is hoping his third proves a charm in Dubai.
The Spaniard, ranked eighth in the world, returns to the DP World Tour Championship this week, where last year he delivered a firm endorsement of his undoubted talent by winning on debut.
As such, he arrives at Jumeirah Golf Estates as one of the men to beat. And defending titles clearly sits well with him. When twice attempting to hang onto hardware this campaign, Rahm finished tied29th at the Farmers Insurance Open and T-4 at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
Perhaps, then, third time lucky?
“Hard to improve on what I did last year,” Rahm conceded yesterday. “I was able to be defending champion for three events this year.
“In Torrey [Pines], I played great the first two days, was in the final group, but didn’t play great on the weekend.
“In Ireland, I was doing good until that second hole [on Sunday] – a triple-bogey doesn’t help – but I still battled back and almost got myself into the play-off. So hopefully, I’ve gotten close and maybe this progression continues and I’m able to defend this week.”
Overall, his progression has been rapid. Rahm won three times in his first full season as a professional, and in January was within another victory of reaching world No 1.
Understandably, this season has not quite reached those heights, although he still won on the PGA Tour and his national championship in Spain, while he finished in the top four at both the US Masters and US PGA Championship.
At the Ryder Cup, also, there was a memorable success against Tiger Woods in the singles, part of Europe’s comprehensive triumph in France. And, not to mention his form in his six previous appearances at Rolex Series events, taming the Tiger portrays Rahm is a man for the grand occasion.
“For the most part, when I think about the year, I peak in those events, the ones that matter to me,” Rahm, 24, said. “Clearly I’m doing something right, if I finished top 15 in all of them and won twice, so hopefully I can keep that going this week and have a chance to win again on Sunday.”
Rating his year, Rahm offered that he had taken more satisfaction from his personal life, rather than professional.
“I’m not going to do it based on last year because last year was a 10 out of 10,” he said.
“For what I set it out to be and how hard it was to live up to expectation, I’ll give it a 7.5 out of 10.
“There’s so many things I learned about myself this year. What I’m going to say is it was a year for a lot of personal growth.
“It was a great year to get engaged and start my life. I would say in personal and family-matters way, it was such a great year. I’ll give it a 10 out of 10.”
Sunday at the Ryder Cup would probably rank around that, too. Asked for the best moment of his 2&1 win against Woods, Rahm said: “The last putt. But I think the whole experience is my favourite thing.”