Francesco Molinari turns Quicken Loans National into rout; Tiger Woods ties for 4th
Francesco Molinari shot a final round 62 to win the Quicken Loans National by eight shots, setting a tournament scoring record and becoming the first Italian-born PGA Tour winner in 71 years.
Italy may have missed out on the World Cup, but they witnessed a championship performance on Sunday.
Francesco Molinari blew past the rest of the field at the Quicken Loans National with a final-round 62 to win by eight shots. The 35-year-old Italian posted a 21-under score of 259 for the week, breaking the tournament scoring record by seven.
Molinari was only in the field at TPC Potomac because of a frustrating finish to last season, when he missed out on the Tour Championship by a single shot. He is determined to earn enough FedexCup points to qualify this year. To do so he skipped the Open de France in Europe to play here. That decision paid off.
“I came here, obviously, because I was right on the bubble in the FedEx, and I wanted to gain a better position,” he said after the tournament. “So I guess job done.”
Molinari came into the final round in a tie for the lead with Abraham Ancer. He held solo possession of the lead by the time he came to the par-three ninth hole. There he hit his approach in a greenside bunker and left his sand shot 14 feet away from the cup. He managed to save the par, but the highlights of his round were still to come.
His scores on the first five holes of the back-nine were as follows: eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie.
At the 10th Molinari holed a 49-foot eagle putt on the par-five. Then at the next hole, the par-four 11th, he hit his approach to within two feet and made birdie. His shot was even more impressive given only one other birdie was made on the hole during the final round. Molinari followed with three more birdies, playing the five holes in six-under.
MOLINARI FOR EAGLE FROM DEEP! pic.twitter.com/M1P0mFZ4o8
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) July 1, 2018
The victory is Molinari’s first on the PGA Tour. He is the first Italian-born winner on the PGA since Toney Penna in 1947. He has won five times on the European Tour, but the same level of success in North America as always eluded him. Molinari has been in fine form lately, with a win at the BMW PGA Championship in May followed by a runner-up finish at his home Italian Open.
As for why he hasn’t been able to match his European achievements, Molinari believes it comes down to just playing well and familiarity.
“I don’t have a definite answer, but I think the first part of the season probably I wasn’t playing quite as well as I am, as I have been in the past month or so. The putting was definitely improved, that takes pressure off the long game as well,” he said.
“I think for us Europeans it’s harder coming over here. It’s not your own country. Everything is different. So that takes a little bit of time to get used to.”
Tournament host Tiger Woods thrilled the Washington, D.C. fans on Sunday with a four-under 66 to tie for fourth. Woods was three-under on the front-nine, including a 29-foot birdie on the eighth hole. He finished 10 shots behind Molinari, but still feels like he accomplished something this week. Woods is particularly satisfied with his putting after making the switch to a TaylorMade Ardmore model before the tournament.
“I did some good work last week. I feel like I’m starting the ball on my lines again. And I’ve got the speed,” he said on CBS after his round. “And I hit a lot of putts that didn’t go in, which is fine. As long as I’m hitting good putts, I’m seeing my lines. That’s something I’ve been missing for a while now, for the better part of almost two months. This is the week I finally turned it around.”
Woods ranked third in Strokes Gained: Putting on Sunday, and seventh for the week.
His strong start gave fans hope of a Sunday charge, but ultimately Woods recognizes that nothing he could have done would have denied Molinari.
“I thought I might have given myself a chance. I was at the 10-under mark starting the turn. Evidently, I would have had to shoot like what, 24 on the back-nine to have a chance. What Francesco is doing back there is phenomenal, because not too many people saw a score like that out there today.”
Ryan Armour finished in second place, earning one of four invitations to the Open Championship at Carnoustie in three weeks. The other spots went to Sung Kang, Ancer and Bronson Burgoon.
This is the last time the Quicken Loans National will be held in the D.C. area, where it has been since its inception in 2007. The tournament moves to Detroit next year.