He ‘won’ the US Open with Matt Fitzpatrick in June.
Now Ryder Cup vice-captain Edoardo Molinari is masterminding Europe’s bid to take back the Ryder Cup in Rome next September with the help of his Moneyball-style stats. The Italian has triumphed three times on the European Tour and played at the 2010 Ryder Cup alongside his brother, Francesco. He also has an engineering degree from Turin University.
And the 2005 US Amateur champion, now 41, has been keeping spreadsheets on his performances for 20 years and developed his analytics platform “sitting on the sofa during lockdown”.
Fitzpatrick was the first to sign up and the Sheffield star credited the StatisticGolf system after his stunning Brookline triumph.
“It is along the lines of Moneyball,” said Molinari. “It is trying to optimise the player scores. We look at previous performances – for example if they have not been playing well with the three-wood – and suggest practise routines.
“Most powerful is helping them with course management and strategy depending on the player’s individual strengths and weaknesses.
“Before he went on the tee at the US Open, I would text Fitzy or send him a document an hour before he teed off saying, ‘Today this is what the plan should look like.’
“There was a prime example with the fifth hole, a short par four.
“With Fitzy, it was so obvious. Not only was the hole generally favouring good driving, but he was also the best driver – or top three – at the time and he is not great with wedges.
“So it just made sense to go for it and make a three rather than lay up and use a wedge. In the end, he went for the fifth hole with his driver each and every day.
“We predicted the difference between going for it and laying up was just over a shot over four days. Then he won the US Open by one shot so maybe that was the difference. I didn’t win the US Open – I helped a little bit!”
Now Molinari, who also works with Viktor Hovland and Jordan Smith, is giving help to the whole of Europe.
Skipper Luke Donald called Molinari at 6am US time the day after his August appointment to discuss tactics for the Marco Simone Golf Club.
“First of all we will help with wildcards and pairings,” added the world No.253 who is still playing on the DP World Tour.
“The other big thing is course set-up. You have to look at both teams. We will try to set it up to favour European players who you know are going to be in the team. And then you try to exploit the weaknesses of the Americans.
“What we try to do is shift the battle to where we might have a little edge on them and just avoid the areas where they are better than us. Once we are there, 95 percent of the work will be done.
“Hopefully the players will execute properly. But it is always down to the players. You can have the best plan in the world, but if the players don’t perform, it is useless.
“On the other hand, you might have a s**t plan but if they play fantastic, they can still win it. It’s just trying to find another edge that we can to help the team to win it back.”
