The Italian is a stats guru who leaves no stone unturned when it comes to finding the best foursomes and fourballs partnerships for Europe.<\/p>\n
Only Fitzpatrick<\/a> thinks Molinari offers the team so much more than just a spreadsheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n Molinari (far right) is an unsung hero admits Fitzpatrick<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Molinari’s calculations proved pivotal for Donald as Europe surged into a seven-point lead after the foursomes and fourballs on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n Things did not go quite to plan in the Sunday singles but Europe still managed to hold on for a deserved two-point victory 15-13.<\/p>\n With it, Europe became the first away team since 2012 to win the Ryder Cup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n It also saw Donald become the first captain since Tony Jacklin in 1989 to win two straight Ryder Cups.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick with wife Katherine and Team Europe<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Molinari, who played and won on his sole European Ryder Cup team appearance at Celtic Manor in 2010, acted as one of Donald’s five vice-captains last week in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was joined by his brother Francesco Molinari, Alex Noren, Thomas Bjorn and Jose Maria Olazabal.<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick considers Molinari deserves huge credit for his tireless work in helping the European team reach their potential in the Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n Not once, but twice now.\u00a0<\/p>\n “i know Luke already said it in his press conference but I think Edoardo is very, not underappreciated, but I guess — well, no, I think underappreciated is the right thing,” said Fitzpatrick, who performed admirably in New York with 2.5 points from four sessions.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n “He is very appreciated by Team Europe, but I think in the outside world, it’s very much, oh, he’s just the stats guy or whatever.<\/p>\n “But to me, Edoardo is No. 1 in the business by a complete mile.\u00a0<\/p>\n “How he’s helped Luke and the vice captains and how he’s shaped the team, pairings, qualification, has been outstanding in my opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think there’s a lot of credit that needs to go to Edoardo as well.”<\/p>\n Fitzpatrick was speaking ahead of this week’s Dunhill Links at The Home of Golf where he is playing alongside his father Russell.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Related:<\/p>\n As for whether Donald might continue in the hotseat in two years time at Adare Manor in Ireland, Fitzpatrick is on the fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I’m sure there’s plenty of people that are good enough to do the job.<\/p>\n “Obviously Luke, like Rahmbo said, he’s created a high bar for the next guys that come in.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Fleetwood was also asked about the potential for Donald to keep the captain’s armband.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n The 2025 Ryder Cup top points scorer<\/a> (4 points) thinks “the ball is probably in Luke’s court.”<\/a><\/p>\n Hatton and Donald embrace at Bethpage<\/p>\n Tyrrell Hatton, who is also competing in the Dunhill Links this week, spoke glowingly of the work Donald has done over the past few years.<\/p>\n But he’s not prepared to yet comment on who could assume the 2027 captaincy.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Luke’s done an incredible job the last three and half years,” said Hatton, who is a record three-time winner at the Dunhill Links and also this week’s defending champion.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n “The amount of time, dedication that him and — to have him put into that was amazing.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Yeah, they have got a lot of stats to digest, but in terms of Ryder Cup captain for Ireland, I don’t know.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It will be interesting to see who it is but I don’t want to sort of make comment on any of that other than just saying I think we all know what an amazing job Luke’s done.”<\/p>\n Will Donald go for three in a row?<\/p>\n Should Donald opt to take the reins on Team Europe again, he will set up a chance to become the only captain to win three Ryder Cups in a row.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n That is not just a record between Europe and the United States, but a record going all the way back to the very start of the Ryder Cup in 1929.\u00a0<\/p>\n Who do you reckon will become 2027 European Ryder Cup captain?<\/p>\n Will it be Donald again or someone new?<\/p>\n Share your thoughts on GolfMagic Facebook<\/p>\n Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Fitzpatrick believes one of Luke Donald’s vice-captains, Edoardo Molinari, is very much the unsung hero on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-186567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Molinari](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025-09-28t210115z_1465653802_up1el9s1me1dh_rtrmadp_3_golf-rydercup.JPG\")
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