“So we will make golf explode in Italy”. Franco Chimenti speaks

By now everyone has understood that he is a dreamer, ever since he became president of the Italian Federation, with the obsession of making golf popular. Then one fine day he arrived at the council with the proposal to bring the Ryder Cup, the third most followed sporting event in the world, to Italy, like imagining the World Cup in Bangladesh. “Someone looked at me as if I were crazy, in fact it was a company well beyond our possibilities.” No one had ever used so much, golf has never made it big with usof course that putt pocketed at 18 St. Andrews by Costantino Rocca was seen by many, we have historic fields and a unique country to make courses in the middle of nature, on the sea, among archaeological parks, in a context that everyone envies us . Imagining the Ryder Cup where golf is still a niche sport was certainly a gamble.

“I was very lonely, the documentation was expensive and complex. As always, the Italian refrain came out, but who makes us participate to lose?”. Let’s meet Franco Chimenti on the eve of the 80th Italian Open, obviously in Rome, at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, an appetizer in view of the competition in September, will be an epochal moment and this is an important step forward. The list of participants is good, many Americans and other players at the top of the standings will be involved in the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte but some of our players will not be missing in Rome, the European captain Luke Donald, former number one in the ranking, the Scot Robert McIntyre who he will defend the title conquered in 2022 and then the Italians, the experience of Edoardo Molinari and the talent of Guido Migliozzi, 28th last week in Japan, eagerly awaited in a season that we hope will give him a place in the team, the Danes Thorbjorn Olesen and Rasmus Hojgaard, already winners of the tournament, all here to test the field which in September will be in the spotlight with 3 billion viewers connected live for the great challenge.

“We have changed it a lot, it has been considerably lengthened, new bunkers, lots of water, it has become a difficult course, even for the best”. It is no coincidence that last year Rory McIlroy put the ball in the water on the 16th, a seemingly easy par four, one of the holes that could put the Americans in difficulty. “Here the length doesn’t matter, if you miss the drive the ball can become unplayable. Over the years we have built a field that will surprise and perhaps could help the European team”. We have seen it in the last three editions, the scores have dropped, the greenkeepers have put some malice into it, one more reason why the best will win again this year. Let’s talk about the champions of the present and the past, the history of the Italian Open, the legends, the memories of Baldovino Dassù and even further back the times of the three musketeers of our golf, Alfonso Angelini, Aldo Casera, Ugo Grappasonni, too bad have played enough at international level, in the fifties they would certainly have obtained a few more victories. “On the other hand, to get to the Ryder Cup we went to play outside the borders. Considering the conditions of the country they thought we were crazy. Then something changed.” Chimenti talks about the trust he found in Keith Pelley, CEO of the European Tour, “he arrived from Canada, he had dealt with football, luckily his mind was free from preconceptions. I spoke to him and he was struck by the idea of ​​bringing the best of golf to an unrivaled place”. A unique location, a stone’s throw from the centre, with a beautiful view, are the miracles of the telephoto lens, on the dome of St. Peter’s.

Italian miracle. In the most difficult contexts it can happen because sometimes something changes. In the case of the Ryder Cup, against all odds, it was then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who believed in the idea of ​​bringing international competition to Italy. An unexpected result that required a significant fundraising. “We worked hard on it and now we’re here, four months away from the big event, with an Italian Open that has a lower budget than in the past but that doesn’t matter. We came out of the Rolex Series with savings of 5 million a year and we have given more resources to the creation of a Ryder Cup in which everything will have to run perfectly, perhaps even with our team winning”. To date, every prediction leaves the time it finds. The games are played in the last two months, from the Scottish Open onwards. At the moment the standings are sure Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrell Hatton and then again Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry as possible wild cards, a poker of aces that would give peace of mind to the twelve Europeans. There is pressure “to have an Italian in the team”, the qualification of an Azzurri would drive the European team “because in the Ryder Cup there is stadium support” and the hope of a memorable three days for Victor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and John Rahm who after his victory at the Masters returned number one in the world, “he is the leader of the present and the future, the one who can make us the difference”.

Whatever happens, in the end “it will still be a victory for us”. Chimenti’s vision is global, the Ryder Cup will bring tourism and a new and unprecedented attention to golf “which this year will have to explode and become widespread throughout Italy, because with this sport we can build a better future, in balance between tourism and sustainability”. Franco Chimenti talks about the dream of a country that in ten years will be the Scotland of the Mediterranean, with tourists from all over the world and Italian talents winning on international fields. We wonder if it’s possible, to date the results prove him right, “and yet at the beginning it was only me who thought it!”. It is a phrase that he often repeats, with a touch of irony and we like hearing him say it. We have patience, just wait a few years and then we’ll understand if this dreamer has really succeeded in changing the balance of Italian sport.