With The Road to Rome 2022 well under way and Italian golf on the rise following European Tour success for two former European Challenge Tour players, we caught up with Francesco Laporta to discuss The Ryder Cup, Italian golf and the Italian Challenge Open Eneos Motor Oil at Terre dei Consoli Golf Club this week.
This week the Challenge Tour is a just outside Rome, the location for The 2022 Ryder Cup. As an Italian, how excited are you to have one of the biggest sporting events in the world come to your country?
It’s going to be amazing. It’s the dream of all Italian golfers to have the event in our country and it’s going to be a great event in 2022.
After the European success in Paris last year and Francesco Molinari winning The Open and his performance at The Ryder Cup. Has there been an increase excitement in golf in Italy?
For sure, definitely! Molinari did a lot for our sport, for Italian golf and for European golf. He was the best Ryder Cup player last year and hopefully he’ll play really well in a couple of years’ time in Italy.
With Guido Migliozzi winning twice this year and Andrea Pavan triumphing last week, Italian golf is on the rise.
Italian golf is looking good right now. I played a lot of tournaments with Guido last year on the Challenge Tour. He’s a really good player but last year he missed a lot of cuts, but this year he’s shown how good he is, which is great because he’s such a good player. Pavan is unbelievable as he’s won two tournaments in two years.
We’ve got some really good players in Italy!
You’re back in Italy this week. Is it enjoyable coming back to play on home soil?
I’m really excited for it and I’m looking forward to playing on home soil this week. The course looks in great shape and the conditions look good. It’s a bit too hot but I’m okay with that because it’s the summer. I think it’s going to be a really good tournament because the prize fund is the biggest in Europe, so everyone is aiming to play well here.
The weather is set to reach 40 degrees on the course. How does that affect your game?
I’ll try and drink lots of water, and that’s what the most successful players here will need to do. Sometimes playing golf the weather can be really cold or really hot, but that happens in golf. So, if you can enjoy the weather and drink a lot of water then you should be okay.
You had a good start to the season with the runner-up finish in Turkey. How much confidence did that give you?
I played really well during the first part of the season but then I struggled at a couple of tournaments, but I’m feeling a lot better now. I feel like my golf is getting back to that level and let’s hope for a good week here in Italy.
