Francesco Molinari’s “special year” continued with a magical performance at the Ryder Cup.
The Italian rubber stamped Europe’s victory at Le Golf National by defeating Phil Mickelson 4&2 on Sunday and also fired himself into the record books.
The often deadpan 35-year-old showed a fiery spirit in Paris and revealed he was desperate to help Europe’s captain Thomas Bjorn win.
“It’s been a special year for me,” he told CNN’s Shane O’Donoghue.
“There’s always been a really good relationship between Thomas [Bjorn] and me. I really wanted to make the team this year because I thought I could do well for him.”
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Despite becoming Italy’s first major winner at July’s British Open not many expected Molinari to be the catalyst for European triumph.
And yet, courtesy of his trademark steady hand, he became the first European to ever win a maximum five points in one Ryder Cup – American Larry Nelson was the last man to do so, in 1979.
Despite the inspirational performance, the Italian remained humble.
“It’s a course that I love,” he said. “So it’s a combination of factors, coming here with a lot of confidence and finding an amazing partner in Tommy. Just a perfect week for me.”
In pictures: Ryder Cup 2018
Moliwood
The Italian was paired with English rookie Tommy Fleetwood for the fourballs and foursomes matches and the duo became crowd favorites.
The pairing picked up the “Moliwood” moniker on their way to becoming the first European duo to sweep all four pairs matches they played together.
Notably, three of those four wins came against 14-times major champion Tiger Woods.
Following the win, Molinari was full of praise for Fleetwood and the relationship they formed throughout the tournament.
“We just have fun together. We are really good friends outside the course, we spend time together. But that’s not enough obviously,” Molinari explained.
“We play in a really similar way. We are both very complete and steady. We make putts when we need to make putts and we just inspired each other. It was incredibly fun.”
