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Magnifico Molinari the Italian pioneer; David Clifford the Kerry saviour

Morning Sports Briefing: Keep ahead of the game with ‘The Irish Times’ sports team

Italy’s Francesco Molinari kisses the Claret Jug after winning The Open Championship 2018 at Carnoustie. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Ruaidhrí Croke's face
Ruaidhrí Croke
Mon Jul 23 2018 - 07:29

Italy has many things. Great football teams, some of the best food in the world, magnificent beaches, Ferraris, sunshine, history, architecture, good coffee and so on and so on. One thing the country did not have – until yesterday – was a Major champion in golf. Thanks to Francesco Molinari that has changed. The 35-year-old from Turin held off names such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth to win the British Open at Carnoustie on Sunday and in doing so become the first ever Italian Major winner. Molinari was rock-solid in the eye of a Tiger Woods storm which threatened to engulf the Scottish course and bring about one of the greatest sports stories ever told when the 14-time Major winner briefly held the lead on the final day. However, it was not to be for Woods and it wasn't to be for McIlroy either who admitted afterwards to our man Philip Reid that he thought Woods would win and that he was "trying to spoil the party."

There was plenty of drama on Sunday in Clones as well as Monaghan looked like they had Kerry's number right until the death in their Super 8 encounter which ended in a thrilling draw and breathed life into the new format. David Clifford's 74th minute goal saved the Kingdom from a loss and threw the fate of both teams up in the air with one Super 8 game to go each. Elsewhere, Cian O'Neill was left livid as Kildare were cut to 14-men in their loss to Galway while there were wins on Saturday for Dublin and Donegal in the other group. Sticking with GAA and in his column this morning Malachy Clerkin asks why the organisation keeps shooting itself in the foot by getting big decisions wrong – brought to light this week by the controversy over the proposed Liam Miller testimonial in Cork.

On to soccer and Mesut Ozil last night released a statement to say he is retiring from international football due to what he described as unfair discrimination surrounding his meeting with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in May. Ozil – like a number of the German squad – has Turkish ancestry and says he has been victimised since the meeting, saying "the treatment I have received from the DFB and many others makes me no longer want to wear the German national team shirt. I feel unwanted and think what I have achieved since my international debut in 2009 has been forgotten." Germany crashed out of the World Cup in the group stages in Russia and, with a week gone since the tournament ended there, the country has returned to its usual repressive state with all of the World Cup joy sucked out of it. "Russia cleared out undesirable elements – pickpockets, drunks, prostitutes – and children, to ensure they would not be corrupted by exposure to capitalists, and started work to renovate some of the city's run-down hotels," writes Rory Smith.

At the Tour de France there was more drama yesterday as Geraint Thomas retained the yellow jersey but the atmosphere around Team Sky remained poisonous with boos from the crowd and further criticism coming from the French media.

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