[32] MARCH 2019 | INTERVIEW GOLFNEWS.CO.UK
BETTER BY DESIGN Francesco Molinari’s brilliant 2018 season, the highlight of which was a stunning victory at The Open Championship, was achieved through sheer hard work and a dedicated team of coaches who have brought out the very best in their supremely talented pupil
How are you approaching the new season, given all that you achieved last year? What goals have you set? I’m feeling great. Obviously, it’s different to show up this year as the Race to Dubai champion, and a major champion, but I’ll try to put up a good defense of those titles, and I’m looking forward to the season. I know it’s not going to be easy to repeat, but it’s a long season and I’m glad to finally get started, as I’ve had quite a bit of time off over the winter. I think the only way to follow up last year is to focus on my own improvements, and try not to get too outcome-focused. We all know in golf there are a lot of good players, and the margins are very small, so I might play as well as last year but not win any tournaments. I need to be aware of that. I need to measure myself not so much on the wins, but on how I feel on the course, how I play, and that’s going to be the goal for the season, to try and improve what I feel like I can still improve and maintain what I was doing well last year.
What do you think were the key factors behind your success last year and your all-round improvement? There certainly wasn’t any kind of magic wand, that’s for sure. It’s been a lot of hard work over a number of years from myself, and the team around me, and eventually it all came together. I worked out a long time ago that I needed to play to my strengths to succeed on tour. Although I’m not a short hitter off the tee, I’ve never been that long, so if you can’t be long, you need to be accurate, and have good course management. So I don’t try to hit the ball too hard. It is better for me to be further back in the fairway than further up in the rough, so I work hard on finding the right line from each tee. I try to focus on a really small target. In golf, you need to make the margin of error as wide as you possibly can, and the best way of doing this is to aim for a specific spot, rather than a general area. Other than that, like I said, I’ve worked really hard on all aspect of my game, especially my short game, and that seemed to pay off.
You’ve definitely added some yardage to your long game in recent seasons. How have you achieved that, and how much has that helped you compete on the long courses you face on tour? It’s been a combination of physical and mental factors really, and it’s certainly not happened overnight. Physically, I’ve been worked really hard with my strength and conditioning coach, Rob Goldup. There’s not too much science behind it – if you want to hit it longer, you need to be stronger, so I definitely spend a lot more time in the gym than I did ten years ago. It’s about creating clubhead speed and for that you need muscles and you need flexibility. I’ve gained about 10mph in ball speed in the last couple of seasons, which has given me an extra 20 yards.