Golf, Italian Open: Polish triumph with Adrian Meronk

ROME – Finally, a Polish “pope”. And we had already heard this, albeit in other, far more important areas. But Adrian Meronk, winner of the 80th Italian Open with full merit, albeit narrowly, is the first Pole in history to have won a professional golf tournament, in Ireland last July, then repeating himself in December in the Australian summer. After all, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, golf was practically unknown in Poland while Meronk, born in 1999, was able to take advantage of post-Cold War freedoms, go to study in Tennessee and refine his golfing talent already widely reported in his amateur career . He was the best in the world standings of the entire group of participants (63rd), he was the best in the end by stemming the “bleu” wave of the French Langasque and Guerrier, who stopped respectively one and two shots behind at the end of an exciting duel on the last holes played on the edge of mistakes and comebacks by everyone.

Meronk is not a discovery: in his first appearances on the PGA Tour in the United States, in comparison with the best in the world, he has already obtained good placements, but he reveals a particular feeling with the Marco Simone course, where the Ryder Cup. Two years ago he finished second; this time he won, pocketing the $552,000 first prize. On Luke Donald’s diary, Ryder’s captain, his name is now clearly visible and not only because, by dint of good results, he can be perfectly capable of joining the team from the official rankings, but above all because he has shown that he being perfectly at ease along the ups and downs of the insidious path of the Biagiotti house. Path which, by the way, confirmed to be rather hard bread even for the most gifted, given that Meronk won with -13 (many tournaments end at -20 and beyond) and, after four days of competition, there were only 31 players to go under par. Ryder is going to have fun.

The Open of our discontent

Already on Saturday, after three laps, the blue balance had reached a low point like never before with our three survivors (Migliozzi, Paratore, Zemmer) confined to the last positions. There was still a tremulous hope of a final burst of pride, of a lap to be applauded to sweeten the pill: nothing to do. The least worst (inappropriate to speak of best) was Migliozzi, 57th out of 72 remaining in the race (+1 of the day), then 64th Zemmer (+2 of the day but the only one to be praised because he usually races on smaller circuits) and finally 71st and penultimate Paratore (+6 of the day). Frankly, it couldn’t have gone worse.