Italy’s Giulia Molinaro played in Sunday’s penultimate group, starting the day five shots off the lead, trying to become Italy’s first female major champion. She is quite worldly. Her family runs a luxury safari business in Kenya, and Molinaro speaks fluently in Italian, Spanish and English. She played her college golf here in the U.S., at Arizona State. Heading into Sunday’s final round of the KPMG Women’s PGA, her best finish in 2021 had been a tie for 25th at the Pure Silk Championship.
She also has a keen sense of humor. After making birdies at four of her final five holes to shoot 66 on Saturday, a reporter asked if, at any point, she felt “back in this thing.” To which she replied, “No, not until you said it,” before pausing to add, “I’m joking.”
Because she is not a member of the Ladies European Tour, Molinaro is not eligible to play in the Solheim Cup later this year. Molinaro said she wasn’t that surprised by the low scoring on the Highlands Course, even though it can play more than 6,700 yards and has plenty of holes where water guards the green. “Greens are perfect,” she said. “Greens are impressive.”
