Molinari sets his heart on a Ryder Cup dream team

Published on Sunday 11 July 2010 21:11

EDOARDO Molinari, the new Barclays Scottish Open champion, reckons he would form a Ryder Cup 'dream team' with his younger brother, Francesco, if they both make Colin Montgomerie's side at Celtic Manor later in the year.

The 29-year-old, who shot a closing 74 on an error-strewn difficult closing day at Loch Lomond to claim his first European Tour title and a 500,000 first prize by three shots from Darren Clarke, is into sixth place on the world ranking points table that will provide the first four members of Montgomerie's team.

He is now only 11 points behind Ian Poulter in the fourth qualifying spot and, with Francesco occupying the fifth automatic place overall in the European qualifying table on the basis of money earned on the European Tour after tying for fourth yesterday, there is a real prospect of two brothers playing alongside each other in the event for the first time.

"Today is a great push toward the Ryder Cup team and I think Francesco and I have already shown how well we can play together because our games complement each other," said the winner. "We are both very good drivers, Francesco is probably one of the best iron players on the Tour and I'm a good putter."

Molinari's win, which he labelled as "a tie with the World Cup", continued a trend of players recording first Tour victories in the Scottish Open, the Turin man joining David Feherty (1986), Barry Lane (1988), Michael Allan (1989), Peter O'Malley (1992), Jesper Parnevik (1993), Wayne Riley (1995) and Thomas Bjorn (1996).

For Clarke, the consolation of finishing second in the event for the third time was that he secured a place in this week's Open. "Going to St Andrews is a huge plus for me," said the Ulsterman.