Molinari hangs on at Scottish Open
Edoardo Molinari hung on in drizzly conditions to take victory at the Scottish Open in Loch Lomond yesterday, a closing round of three-over-par 74 enough to see the Italian finish 12-under-par.
That was enough to defeat Darren Clarke by three strokes, the Ulsterman shooting a disappointing final round of 76 after having led for the first two days.
The older of the Molinari brothers, who along with his younger sibling Francesco won the World Cup in China last year, was also struggling on Sunday; the 29-year-old finding three bogeys and a double on the 15th. But the hard work had already been accomplished on Saturday, when he shot seven birdies and an eagle to finish seven-under-par.
Clarke might still have been able to overhaul the Italian, had he been able to deliver the kind of form that lit up the tournament for the first two days. But four bogeys and a double on the 3rd meant that the 41-year-old was unable to build upon his win at the JP McManus Pro-Am earlier last week, finishing on nine-under-par for the tournament yesterday.
But yesterday's runner-up performance still proved a victory of sorts for Clarke, his second-place finish enough to clinch the one available spot for this week's Open, since Molinari had already qualified for the major.
Molinari said: "This is very special. On Tuesday we were talking about the fact that we had never played well in the same week and finally it's happened. Now I hope Francesco wins next week."
France's Raphael Jacquelin finished in third place after a closing round of three-under 68 left him a stroke behind Clarke on eight-under. And Francesco Molinari, the victor's brother, was among those tied for fourth place on seven-under, along with Sweden's Peter Hedblom and Scotland's Stephen Gallacher.
Graeme McDowell faces heightened expectations since his win at the US Open last month, but the Ulsterman failed to meet them here, McDowell finishing four-over-par 75 on the day to end the tournament one-over, in a tie for 21st place.
That might feel disappointing after his heroics at Pebble Beach, but this was the 30-year-old's first tournament back since that win and may have viewed this tournament as a warm-up for this week's Open more than anything else.
Even though John Daly finished a stroke further back, he is likely to have been buoyed by that result after talking of quitting the game for good earlier this year. Daly's game has been in the doldrums, and he performed poorly yesterday, hitting two treble bogeys in successive holes on the 12th and 13th for a final round of six-over, but a tournament total of two-over is no disgrace.
Daly at least made it through the four days - that's more than Phil Mickelson could manage, the world No. 2 missing the cut after finishing three over-par on Friday. Of course, if Mickelson used his weekend to familiarise himself with the old course for this week's Open, perhaps that early exit at Loch Lomond could just work to the Californian's advantage.
Though if Mickelson misses the cut at St Andrews on Friday, we reserve the right to excise the previous sentence from this write-up.
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