(by Federico Colosimo)
(ANSA) - ROME, OCTOBER 20 - The Italian Open as a springboard towards the Italian edition of the Ryder Cup which, after the postponement of the American one for Covid from 2020 to 2021, has been postponed from 2022 to 2023. And just two days before the start of the 77th edition of the Open scheduled from Thursday to Sunday in Pozzolengo, Brescia, here are the new dates of the Ryder of Rome that will be played - as made official by the Italian Golf Federation and anticipated by ANSA - from Friday 29 September to Sunday 1 October 2023. When for the first time in its history Italy will host, at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, the 44th Ryder Cup, the third most important sporting event in the world after the Olympics and the World Cup which will be preceded from the Solheim Cup (the women's event of the match between Europe and the USA), scheduled a week earlier in Spain on the course of the Finca Cortesín in Casares, near Malaga.
"They will be days of great golf in Europe and two wonderful firsts for Spain and Italy" the words of Keith Pelley, CEO of the European Tour. An Italian Open with a view of Ryder.
With the big internationals who at the Chervò Golf Club in Pozzolengo, in Lombardy, are ready to challenge each other to win the title in one of the oldest tournaments of the European Tour. The Pro-Am that will start tomorrow will open the review.
On Thursday the show will start with 114 players on the field, including 17 Azzurri.
Italgolf, four years after the last exploit of Francesco Molinari (absent this time), is chasing the ninth success in the tournament and the second seal of the season on the circuit.
The first (arrived last July) was signed by Renato Paratore (winner of the British Masters) who aims to drag the Italian expedition to Lombardy.
Waiting also for other certainties of the tricolor golf, from Guido Migliozzi to Francesco Laporta (for him Top 10 in 2019), from Edoardo Molinari to Nino Bertasio (from Brescia by adoption), up to Matteo Manassero and Lorenzo Gagli.
Tommaso Perrino, a 36-year-old Paralympic who will play alongside the able-bodied, is ready to fulfill his dream.
But in the field there are also 5 past winners (among them the reigning champion Bernd Wiesberger) and, above all, former world number 1 like the German Martin Kaymer and the British Lee Westwood who will play the first two rounds alongside Paratore.
Everything is ready for the Italian Open with an eye to the future.
Which is called the Ryder Cup and which in just under three years will be the protagonist in the Eternal City.
The countdown has begun.
(HANDLE).