It’s been a tough few months for the average Italian sports fan, watching on with envy as 32 other nations vied for the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Not since 1958 had the four-time champions failed to qualify for football’s greatest showpiece, prompting the president of the country’s football association to compare the outcome to “an apocalypse.”
Francesco Molinari isn’t a household name like the stars of the Azzurri, but the Italian golfer might just have put a smile back onto the faces of those reading Monday’s back pages.
The 35-year-old from Turin held off several more established players on the links of Carnoustie this weekend, including a resurgent Tiger Woods, to win the 147th Open and make history.
Indeed the wait for something to smile about has been a whole lot longer for Italian golf fans, at least when it comes to the country producing a major champion.
Molinari is the first, thanks to his remarkably consistent closing run of 37 holes in a row without a bogey.
And the newest name on golf’s Claret Jug believes his eight-under-par victory “should” get his compatriots cheering again.
“I’m not sure if it will make up for Italy missing the World Cup, but it’s a first step forward,” Molinari told CNN Sport’s Alex Thomas. “Let’s put it like that.”
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‘A different level’
The golfer had come close to major championship glory once before, finishing second to Justin Thomas at the 2017 PGA Championship.
Sunday’s finish will place him under a whole new spotlight.
“Yeah, obviously you kind of expect it,” said Molinari, having been paired with Woods on the final day.
“I was close to the lead and I knew I had a chance. You know there’s going to be a different level of attention if you pull it off.
“So yeah, I’m very proud of what I did today. It was a tough day but I handled myself very well and here we are!”
Much has been made of Molinari’s work with performance coach Dave Alred, a figure who was instrumental in Englishman Luke Donald’s rise to world No. 1 in 2011.
“He’s a personality and a figure that I was missing and the whole team was missing,” Molinari told CNN Sport earlier in the week, acknowledging he’d been “pushed a little bit more.”
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But asked to single out the decisive factor that’s allowed him to make the step-up in the wake of Sunday’s triumph, Molinari gave a more philosophical response.
“I’ve done nothing differently to be honest,” he said. “It’s just a matter of keeping working at it, little by little getting better and, you know, sometimes good things happen.”
A bad summer for Italian football has been a good one for this Italian golfer.
