SEVENTEEN YEARS after they faced each other in a play-off for the British Open Championship, John Daly and Costantino Rocca are playing partners again tomorrow at the start of the Sicilian Open.
Rocca is now 55 and plays nearly all his golf on the Seniors Tour, but 45-year-old Daly is still striving to get back into the big time. No longer a full member of the PGA Tour, he has been travelling the world to try to do it.
After the promise of fourth place at the Qatar Masters early last month, the American then injured his elbow in India.
He was 51st on his return to action at the Transitions Championship in Florida two weeks ago, but last Friday missed the halfway cut at the Hassan Trophy in Morocco. “Seems like yesterday,” he said of his clash with Rocca at St Andrews in 1995.
Rocca made a dramatic 60ft par putt from the Valley of Sin to force the play-off, but Daly won it to add the Claret Jug to his 1991 USPGA Championship victory.
He should have happy memories as well of the last time he and Rocca were at the same tournament. That was the 2009 Italian Open in Turin, and Daly finished joint runner-up behind Argentina’s Daniel Vancsik.
Highest-ranked player in this week’s field is 18-year-old Italian Matteo Manassero, who despite finishes of second and sixth in the past fortnight could not force his way back into the world’s top 50 in time for next week’s Masters.
“I’ve played great in my last two tournaments so the confidence is there and I am really looking forward to Sicily now,” he told the European Tour’s website.
“The Masters would have been an amazing bonus if I had won last week, but I have a great chance to win this week, and that would be a great achievement. I think everybody would love to win in their home country.”
France’s Raphael Jacquelin won at Donnafugata last year, but the tournament switches to the Verdura Golf and Spa Resort.
There is one player in the field who is Augusta-bound, but Thomas Levet is going there to commentate for French television again rather than play. He partners Daly and Rocca and has something in common with them. He was in a play-off for the Open at Muirfield 10 years ago, but lost at the fifth extra hole to Ernie Els.
Welshman Jamie Donaldson, meanwhile, will hope his three-eagle 61 on Sunday is a sign of things to come. This is his 249th Tour start and he has yet to win. England’s 51-year-old Barry Lane plays his 681st event, only 25 fewer than record holder Sam Torrance.
There are six Irish players in the field: Gary Murphy, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie, Gareth Maybin, Paul McGinley and Simon Thornton.
SICILIAN OPEN
Course: Verdura Golf and Spa Resort.
Length: 7,375 yards.
Par: 72.
Players: 144.
Prize money: €1 million, with the winner pocketing €166,000.
Course layout: The Open will feature the best holes from the two courses that make up the Verdura complex. They will provide a typical, if sunny, links challenge – sea winds, undulating fairways and deep bunkers.
Course would suit: A links specialist, although calm weather would put Verdura at the mercy of the field's big hitters.
Defending champion: Raphael Jacquelin (at Donnafugata).
Irish in the field: Gary Murphy, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie, Gareth Maybin, Paul McGinley, Simon Thornton.
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