Golf:Edoardo Molinari won a dramatic Johnnie Walker Championship with three closing birdies at Gleneagles today — and then waited to see if it had earned him a Ryder Cup wild-card. The 29-year-old was two behind Australian Brett Rumford with three holes of the final counting event to play.
He then two-putted the long 16th, sank a curling 30-footer at the 194-yard 17thand then hit a chip to within 18 inches of the final hole.
“I still don’t know, but I like my chances now,” said Molinari, who won the Scottish Open and with his brother Francesco gave Italy their first-ever World Cup victory last month.
The problem for him was that four players ahead him on the world rankings at the start of the year — in order Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington and Justin Rose — all needed one of the three wild cards as well.
But they had not helped their cause by deciding to stay in America rather than come back to Europe. Casey, Donald and Harrington all still had a chance to qualify in the final week.
Molinari’s latest triumph, which left him an agonising one point short of gaining automatic selection off the world points list, came with a one under par 71 in the windy conditions.
Molinari, who in the past year has climbed from Europe’s “second division” Challenge Tour into the world’s top 20 finished with a 10 under par total of 278.
Rumford was second and then two shots further back were Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Molinari’s brother, who had been the overnight leader and was still in with a chance until he closed with a bogey six.
Jimenez and Swede Peter Hanson were able to start celebrating without waiting for captain Colin Montgomerie’s decision an hour later.
They did what they had to do to clinch the final two automatic spots for Celtic Manor on October 1-3, while Simon Dyson, who began the week hoping that a win would get him into the side, finished sixth.
Jimenez needed a top nine finish to make sure and was joint third, while Hanson required top 43 and was 19th.