The Italian claims trophy in China
Edoardo Molinari stood at the greenside of the 18th to cheer his brother, Francesco Molinari's victory. Francesco Molinari was on the HSBC field to putt for a victory he once lost against the world’s number one and Lee
Westwood was at the Sheshan International to fight for his recently held ranking.
The WGC - HSBC Champions was held from the 4th of November to the 7th of this month at the Sheshan International GC. The event held in China ended with Francesco Molinari topping the leader board after carding
a total of 269 with a minus 19.
The Chase for the first place € 860,153 prize money wasn’t easy though. While the Italian golfer was anxiously striving for the win, two men from England and a golfer from Scotland weren’t that far either. These men were Lee Westwood,
Luke Donald and Richie Ramsay.
Westwood carded a 270 with a minus 18 for the runner up position whereas the third place was achieved by Ramsay after carding a 71 at the last round of the event. Donald carded a 73 and tied with Ramsay for third place with a 279.
To round up the top five, Rory Mcllory scored an impressive 280 with a minus 8.
The event was also a tussle between Lee Westwood, Tiger Woods, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson for the World number one ranking. Last time Molinari appeared in front of Woods, he was playing the singles match at the Ryder Cup
which favoured the then number one easily. This time however, the Italian managed to display a world class performance against the now world number one, Lee Westwood.
The Westwood-Molinari battle continued till the last hole and the last putt of the event. The twenty eight year old Italian collected a Bogey during the last round in Shanghai and carded a 67. The five under thus collected at the
last round of the event and managed to hand Molinari one stroke above the competitors and thus, victory with a World Golf Championship title.
According to Molinari, playing with Westwood is no easy task. He said that the four-day game had been fantastic, specially the last two rounds where he played with the world number one. The twenty eight year old recalled his game
with Woods and said that it’s never easy to play against a world number one.
“Playing with Woods gave me the needed experience to tackle Westwood here” Molinari said.
As far as Woods game is concerned, he managed to score a 68 at the last round of the HSBC event and stood 13 strokes short of the first place. The former number one ended the PGA Tour season without a win for the first time landing
at the sixth place for a tie.
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