Top-20 European players to watch out for in 2012: Part-15
Fredrik Jacobson
Official World Golf Rankings: 39
Race to Dubai Rankings: 44
European Tour wins in 2011: 0
Winner of the Travellers Championship at TPC at River Highlands this year, Fredrik Jacobson has been one of the productive Swedish golfers who have done well for his country in consecutive years. Born in Kungsbacka, Sweden in 1974, Jacobson has been part
of the European Tour entourage, on and off, since 1995 after he turned professional in the year 1994. He lost his playing status on the European Tour in 1996 but reclaimed his card in 1997. He won his first European Tour title in 2002, when he took the better
off the rest of the field by two strokes.
Jacobson posted his best finish in a WGC event, WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China, finishing for a high of solo 2nd and had led the event in all the last three rounds. Martin Kaymer’s nine birdies on the final 18-holes stretch denied Jacobson
of what could have been his first WGC title. Jacobson has been featured in the top-20 on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and also pulled in strong top-20 finishes at the Open Championship as well as the US Open at Congressional.
Francesco Molinari
Official World Golf Rankings: 41
Race to Dubai Rankings: 21
European Tour wins in 2011: 0
Francesco Molinari, one of the rampaging Italian golfers, pulled in some glorious high profile finishes in the current season to surge to 21 on the Race to Dubai Rankings. Molinari has been on the circuit since the year 2004 and has won four professional
events in the course of his career, including two European Tour titles. He missed the cut in three of the major events on the calendar and finished the last one, The PGA Championship for a joint 34th.
Molinari won his first European Tour title in May 2006, when he thrashed the field to lift the Telecom Italia Open on his home turf. He was also the first Italian to win a European Tour event since Massimo Mannelli in 1980. Closing in another successful
year in 2009, Molinari surged to top-50 on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and was selected to be part of the Ryder Cup team in 2010.
Young Molinari experienced the climax of his career when he, playing alongside his brother Edoardo Molinari, lifted the Omega Mission Hills World Cup of Golf in 2009, defeating the trailblazing Irish duo of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.
Out of the 22 events he played in 2011, Molinari missed the halfway cut in five of the events, pulling in seven top-ten finishes in all. His best performance of the year came out in the WGC-Cadillac Championship where he finished for a joint third. 29-year-old
Molinari will be hoping to break his winless taboo starting next year and will continue to represent Italy in the sport.
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