European Tour Insider: Brothers boost Italian golf

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Brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari won the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup for Italy for the first time.

In a year when we've celebrated the return of golf to the Olympics with plenty of talk of the impact it will have on the sport in places like China and India, last week's OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup prompted another question.

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What effect will the victory there by the brothers Molinari have on Italy? Well, Francesco and Edoardo believe it will be similarly important.

Italy has a wealth of wonderful courses and a long association with the game. Yet you get the impression that golf has been a little elitist there and not a sport with mass appeal.

Of course, the country has been excited in the past; for instance, by the rise of Costantino Rocca. He'd work in a polystyrene factory, yet look out of his window at a private and exclusive golf club.

He worked as a caddie, learned the game and then rose to win multiple European Tour events. Rocca came oh-so-close to upsetting John Daly at The Open Championship and played in the Ryder Cup.

The modest Molinaris don't feel their achievement ranks with those of Rocca. At the same time, the brothers thought their countrymen would take notice.

"I think it will be big," said Francesco, "because even for somebody who doesn't know golf, it's a World Cup. Being world champions in any sport is a really big thing, and they will speak about it in the next few days, and hopefully we will help the game grow a little bit more."

"This morning in Italy there were a lot of people who woke up at 4.30 to watch all the coverage on the last day," Edoardo added. "And hopefully they will have celebrated the last putt the same as us."

When you also consider the achievement of 16-year-old Matteo Manassero, who won the Amateur Championship before going on to impress behind Stewart Cink and Tom Watson at Turnberry, Italian golf is on a high.

Francesco Molinari can look back on seven top-10 finishes and good performances in the majors. Edoardo won a record amount of prize money in topping the Order of Merit on the Challenge Tour, taking three titles and adding nine other top-10s. He also won the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan just the weekend before his Mission Hills success.

ROARING RORY

It's been a good year for Rory McIlroy, too, but didn't quite get the icing that he wanted at the World Cup. He and Graeme McDowell had led from an opening-day 58, but fell one stroke short in the end.

It feels like McIlroy has been with us a considerable time, but 2009 marked his first professional win at the Dubai Desert Classic. Of course, the 20-year-old Northern Irishman went on to run second to Lee Westwood in the Race to Dubai as well as being a force in the team events. He still has further opportunities to make this year even greater, and there's little doubt McIlroy will make an impression on the PGA TOUR next season.

His playing partner, who took Tiger Woods' place at the Chevron World Challenge, could yet make this a very good year. The Northern Irishman is currently 55th in the world rankings. Step up five places and into the Masters he goes.

RESPECTABILITY

Nick Watney and John Merrick enjoyed representing the United States at the World Cup, but the memories will be all the sweeter because of their finish.

The American team was under the radar all week at Mission Hills, but playing alternate shots on the Sunday, they swept to seven consecutive back-nine birdies and an astonishing 62. They rose to seventh place as a result.

"We saved a lot of face," Merrick said. "It hurts a lot less, the way the day went."

The two young Americans would like to travel a bit more -- particularly Merrick, who said, "I've never been to Europe. I definitely want to go. I want to broaden my horizons."

GETTING THERE

Flying on a private jet is a luxury few of us will ever experience, and even golf's high fliers rarely get blasé about their good fortune.

Sergio Garcia attended the Dubai Air Show to extol the virtues of the Hawker 4000 business jet that helps him get about, saying, "I couldn't expect to compete at a championship level on the golf course if I didn't have a championship-level airplane to get me there."

Alas, he didn't make it to Mission Hills as early as he and Spanish partner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano had hoped. His plane was delayed in Dubai because of technical difficulties.

DOTTY DODD

Former World Cup winner Stephen Dodd also experienced some flight delays, but all down to his own error. He missed the opening ceremony and the pro-am because he was still traveling.

The Welshman had booked the wrong dates for the flight into Hong Kong and the mistake only came to light when phoning ahead to arrange a car to meet him at the airport. It was too costly to change from that scheduled flight.

It's not the first time this year Dodd has made such an error. "I did it for Scotland for the Dunhill Links," he said. "I got the wrong year flying up there; I booked 2010."

Nick Dye is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.