ROCCA Fever has hit the normally sedate city of Bergamo where the Italian Open starts today. Banners proclaiming "Rocca is the best" and "Rocca is a legend" festoon the approaches to the golf club where the first Italian Ryder Cup player was a teenage caddie and, subsequently, caddie master, before he turned professional at 26.
Even the country's most popular national sports paper, which normally devotes its 24 daily pages almost exclusively to soccer, has got excited about Il duello stellare, the duel of the stars, involving Rocca and defending champion Sam Torrance, who was also his Ryder Cup partner in Europe's victory at Oak Hill last September.
The city's local bank, a cement factory and a carpet manufacturer are among the subsidiary sponsors to the leisure wear group Conte of Florence who are putting up the £500,000 prize money. Club vice president Marco Furbetta says, "We are doing it all for Costantino because we love him so much".
It was not always like that for the youngest son of a quartz miner who was born 500 yards from the clubhouse, at the end of the present practice range. He was forbidden to play on the course until he was 18. And when the 17 year old Torrance won the Radici Open at Bergamo, Rocca, then 14, earned £7 for a week's work pulling the trolley of Ramon Sota, uncle of Seve Ballesteros.
"I used to wait until it was dark and creep on to the course and play with cut down clubs," said Rocca. "Then, when I was 15, a member gave me a full set and it was a proud time for me when I shot 72 with them.
"Now I will try not to think about the pressure when all my, friends come to watch me, although I am bound to be nervous for a few holes.
Rocca will play the first two rounds with Torrance, and all though they will be the centre of attraction, especially for local television, a first prize of £83,330 will ensure this event will be much more than the "Sam Costa" show.
Former champions, such as David Feherty (1986) and Ronan Rafferty (1989), are in the field trying to prevent Rocca becoming the first Italian to lift his national golf crown for 16 years Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington are also high with ambition after deciding to miss the Irish PGA championship in favour of the Italian promotion.
McGinley has set his sights on winning a place in the British Open championship at Royal Lytham in July, and to do that he must finish among the top five players, not otherwise qualified, in the top 20 of the Volvo rankings at the end of the forth coming Volvo PGA Championship.
He is currently 12th in the money list, but, since his second place to Ian Woosnam in Perth, has struggled to find his best form. Last week he failed to make the cut in the Turespana Masters at El Saler.
"My goal is to make £35,000 in my next three tournaments to get that Open spot," he said yesterday. "That is my sole reason for missing the Irish PGA Championship this week."
Harrington's goal is to head the "re-rank" of Tour School graduates, which takes place on Sunday night. He starts here in third position with £31,203 ahead of him's are Spaniards Carl Sunesson (£35,830) and Fernando Roca (£41,270).
"The last two weeks have done wonders for me," said Harrington. "And whatever I do here I know I am certain of a top 10 place, which will mean I will get into the majority of the tournaments leading up to the Open."
Harrington has followed one career best (eighth) in Cannes, with another (seventh) in Valencia. "Just to keep that progression going is my aim," he said.
Corks John McHenry and Milltown's Francis Howley fill ninth and 10th places among the School graduates, so their task is to at least hold their ground.
Howley had his best finish of 11th in Valencia, and that should give him the confidence to reproduce that form on a park land course that should suit his accurate iron play.
