SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2016 - ITALIAN OPEN
FRANCESCO MOLINARI
• His fourth European Tour International Schedule victory in his 292nd official European Tour event.
• Moves to 1,011,107 points in the Race to Dubai.
• Could move to inside the top 45 of the Official World Golf Ranking, from 65th.
• His first European Tour victory since the 2012 Open de España. A gap of four years and 135 days.
• Since his 2012 win he has played in 86 official European Tour events between victories.
• In that time he has finished second five times. The events were: 2012 Alstom Open de France, 2012 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, 2013 BMW Masters, 2015 Open de España and 2016 Open de France. From the 86 events he has been placed in the top ten 19 times overall.
• This victory beats his previous best 2016 European Tour performance of second in the Open de France.
• His second win in the Italian Open, following his debut victory in 2006.
• The first player to win the Italian Open twice since Hennie Otto (2008 and 14).
• Follows Bernhard Langer (1983, 97), Sandy Lyle (1984, 92), Sam Torrance (1987, 95), Ian Poulter (2000, 02), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño (2007, 12) and Hennie Otto (2008, 14), as players to win the multiple Italian Open titles since the event became part of the European Tour in 1972.
• Becomes the fourth Italian victory in the Italian Open since the event became part of the European Tour in 1972. They are: Baldovino Dassu (1976), Massimo Mannelli (1980) and Francesco Molinari (2006, 16).
• Follows Joost Luiten, who won the KLM Open seven days ago, to become the second consecutive home player to win their national open.
OTHER FACTS
• Just like Joost Luiten when he became the first Dutch player to win the same European Tour on two occasions, Francesco Molinari becomes the first Italian to win the same European Tour event twice.
• His 262 winning total is the lowest total of the 2016 season to date.
• Maintains his outstanding record in the Italian Open. This is his fifth top eight finish in his last ten appearances. He was first in 2006, tied third in 2007, tied sixth in 2009, tied eighth in 2011 and first in 2016.(Has made the cut in ten of his 11 appearances in the event as a professional and twice as an amateur).
• Is a total of 128 under par in the Italian Open for his last ten appearances. (Has finished in each of these ten appearances under par).
• With Joost Luiten winning the KLM Open and Francesco Molinari, the Italian Open, this becomes the first time on the European Tour since 1999 that two home players have won their national opens in consecutive weeks.. The two in 1999 were Colin Montgomerie (Scottish Open) and Paul Lawrie (Open Championship).
• His second victory in the Italian Open comes in his 16th career appearance.
• Becomes the 21st Italian victory in European Tour history.
• Moves to within one victory of Costantino Rocca, who has five, in the list of most prolific Italian winners.
• Joins Matteo Manassero on four wins and moves to joint second in the list of Italian all-time winners.
• The first Italian victory on the European Tour since Marco Crespi, who won the 2014 NH Collection Open.
• Has now won €967,694 from his 11 professional appearances in the Italian Open.
• Jointly led after 54 holes. The third of his four European Tour titles he has won with 18 holes to play. They are: 2006 Italian Open, 2010 WGC – HSBC Champions and 2016 Italian Open.
• The 20th winner this season to lead going into the final round.
• Gains a European Tour exemption until the end of the 2018 season.
• Moves over €14 million in European Tour Official Career Money.
• Gains his fourth victory as a professional.
