GULLANE (Scotland): Francesco Molinari is hoping to light the blue touch paper on his game at this week’s British Open after the Italian admitted he lost focus following his involvement in last year’s extraordinary Ryder Cup win.
The 30-year-old has not been able to find any consistency this season and has managed only three top-10 finishes all year.
“I think maybe I lost a bit of focus after the Ryder Cup,” Molinari told reporters in an interview on Tuesday. “I’ve been trying to fix my shots too much rather than fixing my swing.
“I’ve been reacting to every single shot and saying, ‘Why did I hit that? Rather than having a long-term picture of where I want my swing to be and just thinking about the next shot, the next swing, rather than looking back too much,” said Molinari.
“It’s not easy when you’re not getting the results you want. I’ve been working really hard during the winter and during the season but golf’s like that, you have to accept the good times and try to get out of the bad times as soon as possible.
“Results haven’t been as good as I hoped for but I’m working on it and hopefully this will be a good week to change the trend.”
Molinari, who halved the final singles match with Tiger Woods in Illinois in September to clinch a 14 ½-13½ comeback victory for Europe, has never played at Muirfield before and caught his first glimpse of the undulating Scottish links on Monday.
“I played 18 holes yesterday, another nine today and I’ll do another nine tomorrow,” he said. “The wind was blowing hard yesterday and it was really tough but fair.
“It is firm and fast and it will be a good test especially if the wind blows.” — Reuters
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