Team Europe were victorious at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black last month, and Edoardo Molinari has now opened up on a decision made by Keegan Bradley which really tipped the scales in Luke Donald’s side’s favour.
Edoardo Molinari, commonly known as Dodo, played a key role for the Europeans at the Ryder Cup with his expertise in statistics and data.
The Italian was the driving force behind golf’s statistical revolution and he was the founder of StatisticGolf, now known as Arccos Golf.
He was also a cool, calm and composed head inside the European team-room at Bethpage Black.
Earlier this week, Molinari criticized some of the US fan behavior at the Ryder Cup, but he did refute suggestions that the European players were ready to take unprecedented action by walking off the golf course.
Molinari has already criticized Keegan Bradley for his decision to use Collin Morikawa and Harris English as a pairing twice on Friday and Saturday at the Ryder Cup.
Now he’s highlighted another error made by the 39-year-old from Vermont at Bethpage Black last month.
Edoardo Molinari criticizes Keegan Bradley’s ‘very risky move’ at the Ryder Cup
Molinari is obviously very knowledgeable when it comes to implementing what the data tells him regarding which players to pair up together.
When speaking on the Fried Egg Podcast, Molinari opened up about how Bradley pairing Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau together in the four-balls on Saturday was a ‘risky move’.
He said: “You’ve put me in a difficult spot now!
“I think it’s far from ideal, especially in four-balls. If you really want to do it, I would probably do it in foursomes.
“To do it in four-balls, it’s a bit of a lottery almost, you could have the worst two players on a team beating the best two players on a team.
“It’s a very risky move and it gave us a very big target to aim for, and I felt like Tommy and Justin went out and they felt like they had nothing to lose.
“Once they went up in that game it was a big confidence boost for our team and a big hit for the Americans.“
Matt Fitzpatrick said what Edoardo Molinari offers is entirely unique
Matt Fitzpatrick is one of the Italian’s many clients when it comes to that analytical data that he offers.
When speaking to the DP World Tour’s website, he said: “Working with Edoardo Molinari – who is obviously a very accomplished Tour player and who has that experience – he knows about the game and he knows what to look for. He understands things.
“What Edoardo was offering in terms of what we can track is just so much better than what I was using before, as well as the additional advantage of me saying, ‘oh, I’d really like to look at this’ and he would be able to just build that into a spreadsheet and we could track that for a period of time or we could track that forever.
“He’s open to making changes. He’s always trying to improve his product and give better advice. He’s worked so hard at it.
“I’m always interested in numbers, whether it’s mine or whether it’s other people’s. I kind of like to know what’s going on and what’s good, and why someone is playing well and why they are not playing well. I just find that interesting and I know Edoardo is the same. He’s someone that I can trust and get on well with and there isn’t any better in my opinion.“
It’s little wonder why Molinari was able to play such a key role in the European team’s Ryder Cup success at Bethpage, and indeed in Rome in 2023.
Perhaps the US team need to go down a similar route, although Molinari obviously won’t be helping them out anytime soon!
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
