Niall Kearney of Team Ireland is one of two Irish entries this week for the Roma Golf Open 2010 presented by REZZA which is being played at the Olgiata Golf Club with Gary Murphy also electing to play in the Challenge Tour event given he is thirty places down the reserve list for the Portugal Masters.
The achievements of Italian Ryder Cup winners, Edoardo and Francesco Molinari, will loom large over this week’s event and should be an added bonus for the Italian Gold Federation – the promoters of the event.
With only three events remaining in the 2010 Challenge Tour season there is much at stake this week in the Italian capital, as players vie for a place in the top 20 of the Rankings to earn a place on the 2011 Race to Dubai.
Edoardo Molinari is proof of what can be achieved as his victory in the Roma Golf Open last year was his third victory of Challenge Tour season, and ensured he finished top of the Rankings with record earnings.
Twelve months ago at the exclusive OIgiata Golf Club Edoardo Molinari made it a hat-trick of titles with a one stroke victory over Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, with Welshman Rhys Davies – who like Molinari has since entered the winners’ enclosure on The European Tour – back in third place
After Rome Edoardo then went on to win the Omega Mission Hills World Cup with his brother, Francesco, captured two European Tour titles and progressed from Challenge Tour graduate to one of Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes at The Celtic Manor Resor.
Last weekend Bernd Wiesberger became the second Austrian to capture a brace of Challenge Tour titles in France last week, and the 25 year old has now sets his sights on a third victory at this week’s Roma Golf Open 2010 presented by REZZA to earn instant promotion to The European Tour.
Local Italian players have also seen the success of Edoardo as motivation.
“If Edoardo can do that then it gives us all belief that if we work hard and think positive we can achieve what he has,” said Federico Colombo. “A player like Edoardo is an inspiration to us all, and we are all trying to follow what he has done.
“To go from the Challenge Tour last year, to winning twice on The European Tour and then on the winning Ryder Cup team was just fantastic. He is proof of what we can all do. He has enjoyed unbelievable success, and we are all working for that.”
Colombo is one of those players battling for a top 20 place and is currently 24th.
Fellow Italian Alessandro Tadini is in a similar position just outside the top 20, and hopes his experience of playing on The European Tour for five years from 2004 will stand him in good stead as the race to the line continues.
Tadini was competing on The European Tour last year so did not play at Olgiata Golf Club, but remembers it from 2003 when the club hosted the Italian Open and believes the tight, tree-lined fairways will favour his game.
