As the first Italian to play in the Ryder Cup, Costantino Rocca was, unsurprisingly, idolised by a young Edoardo Molinari.
However, somewhere along the path, one that led Molinari to follow in Rocca’s footsteps, their outlooks on golf diverged. A vice-captain in Rome this week, Molinari has been described by Viktor Hovland as the data “genius” behind Team Europe’s bid for Ryder Cup glory.
His simulations will play a crucial role in deciding European pairings, but a testimonial from Rocca does not appear imminent.
“Golf has a lot of statistics, but it’s not a statistic that tells you if you can play in the Ryder Cup,” Rocca tells Standard Sport. “Statistics might tell you who has power in their arms, but the Ryder Cup is something you have to feel in your soul.”
Rocca will watch on as his country holds the attention of the golfing world for three days, and his mind will inevitably flick back 26 years to when he took the biggest scalp of them all at Valderrama.
Rocca was in high spirits when walking off the green on Sunday morning at the 1997 Ryder Cup, a 5&4 foursomes victory alongside Jose Maria Olazabal, delayed due to bad light the previous night, secured. It soon became apparent, though, that the approaching Seve Ballesteros, European captain, was arriving with more than just a congratulatory hug.
“I saw Seve starting to walk to me. I said, ‘Oh, no, it’s my turn against Tiger Woods!’” Rocca laughs.
Molinari’s algorithms would have struggled to find cause for European optimism ahead of that singles match, six months on from Woods’ stunning 12-shot victory at the Masters. Rocca played alongside Woods in the final round at Augusta and, with those memories still fresh in his mind, was not about to waste the best seat in the house.
“I was the only guy on the team who didn’t want to play Tiger,” Rocca admits. “I spoke with Seve and Olazabal, they told me to not watch him hit his shots. But he was a big champion. I told them I love seeing Tiger hit the ball, I will watch him!”
However, Rocca’s power disadvantage proved a puzzle Woods struggled to solve.
“He looked at the club I hit on a par three. I hit a punched five iron and he needed to hit a wedge,” Rocca says. “I knew Tiger was more anxious than me at that moment.”
The Italian was four up at the turn, and that lead had only been reduced to three heading to the 16th. A wayward drive left Rocca in the trees, and Ballesteros was horrified as the Italian revealed his plan to hit a big one-iron cut under the branches.
Ballesteros was eventually won over, remembering, perhaps, he had rarely been an ambassador for caution himself with club in hand. Rocca found the fringe on his way to completing a 4&2 win, the muted celebration that followed one of relief as much as jubilation.
“If you give Tiger a little nail on your finger, he will take your whole arm,” Rocca says. “I respect him so much. He’ll be three down, four down, but he’ll never lay down.”
That win proved to be Rocca’s final Ryder Cup involvement, with the Italian not asked to be part of a backroom team in the years since. Francesco Molinari joins his brother as a vice-captain on home soil this week, a role Rocca wanted when the duo were rookies in 2010.
You can win, you can lose, but you must always believe.
“The Molinari brothers played in Wales, they had five vice-captains, but you don’t invite one Italian guy who played three Ryder Cups?” Rocca asks. “My friends, the players I played with, they did not invite me one time. If I made a mistake, you have to tell me, but they haven’t answered me.”
Rocca’s hurt is evident. His remarkable putt to force an Open play-off with John Daly at St Andrews in 1995 is what many best remember him for, but it is his Ryder Cup memories he cherishes most dear.
“The people in that team room were like brothers,” he says. “I was not the best player in competition for myself, but when I did it for the team I knew what that meant.”
Rocca was a rookie the last time Team Europe lost on home soil, his singles defeat to Davis Love III providing the Americans with the point they needed for victory at The Belfry in 1993. That match went down to the final hole, and Rocca’s demand of the current crop is a simple one; that the European dozen fight until the final putt drops.
“If you lay down under pressure, don’t play,” Rocca says. “You can win, you can lose, but you must always believe.”
