(ANSA) - Rome, October 9 - 2018 British Open champion
Francesco Molinari will try to win his third Open Italia title
on October 10-13 at Rome's Olgiata Golf Club to make Italian
golf history.
The Italian champion won the 2006 and 2016 editions of
Italy's leading golf tournament, which has reached this year its
76th edition.
Another Italian golfer, the extraordinary Ugo Grappasonni,
was the only champion to win the title twice, like Molinari.
Grappasonni won in 1950 and 1954.
Molinari's first Open Italia victory dates back to May 8,
2006.
The Piedmont-born player, who was 23 at the time, won the
63rd edition of the tournament at the Tolcinasco Castle in Milan
in his first year as a professional.
Another golfer, Massimo Mannelli, had been the last Italian
to grab the top Italian title 26 years earlier, in 1980.
Molinari won the Open Italia a second time on September 18,
2016 at the Golf Club Milan.
He then came very close to a third victory in 2018 in Soiano
del Lago (Brescia) but had to surrender at the last hole to
Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen.
Now Molinari will try again to become a legend of the
tournament.