In the second part of our series with Italy’s National Federation coach and Matteo Manassero’s personal guru, Alberto Binaghi tells us that Andrea Pavan could become one of Italian golf’s great role models and reveals the pivotal role the Challenge Tour played in the career of one existing legend, Costantino Rocca.
Andrea Pavan is a perfect ambassador for his country, according to Italian Golf Federation coach Alberto Binaghi, and he thinks that the 22 year old, as well as his other compatriots on The European Tour, will do Italy proud in 2012 and beyond.
Pavan made a big impression on the Challenge Tour in 2011, winning twice and only just missing out on the chance to emulate Edoardo Molinari by finishing the year as the number one player in the Rankings.
That accolade went to England’s Tommy Fleetwood, who took the crown by finishing second at the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final behind Pavan last month.
The young Roman may have been denied the Number one status but he was cool and composed going down the final stretch at San Domenico, looking every bit a future star, and Binaghi has also singled him out as a good role model for young Italian golfers.
“Andrea is a very exciting player,” said Binaghi. “He has been on the National Team for about four years and has been a high level player. He is also a very educated person; he went through with all of his education in school and university so he is a very good ambassador for us and I'm glad he’s on Tour because that’s where he belongs.”
Pavan wasn’t the only Italian to earn his card that day along Italy’s Adriatic coast and Binaghi also had good words to say about Federico Colombo and Alessandro Tadini, who finished seventh and 20th in the Rankings, respectively.
“Pavan and Federico Colombo are very good young players and Tadini has been there a few years but he still has a young head - it is important to be young in the mind and be fresh,” he continued. “Alessandro likes coming back on tour and is not tired of the game, that’s why I still consider him a young player.
“I think that they are all potential winners on tour; Pavan and Colombo are pretty good competitors while Gagli also has a good chance.”
The importance of the Challenge Tour to the development of Italian golf is not lost on Binaghi. Costantino Rocca, one of the most influential players the country has produced and the first Italian to play in The Ryder Cup, was one of the first graduates to make the step from the Challenge Tour to The European Tour, while Massimo Scarpa, Edoardo Molinari and Gagli all followed suit.
“With Rocca, nobody knows that his is a very strange story,” explained Binaghi. “The Challenge Tour, as a gateway to The European Tour, didn’t exist when he won in Verona in a small event on another tour.
“I remember it was during that first season (1989) when The PGA European Tour put together all the satellite tournaments and decided the best five players from the Challenge Tour would make the step up.
“Rocca was one player there, as well as Silvio Grappasoni, and it was then that Rocca started winning. If he was not on the Challenge Tour that year and if it (the promotion system) hadn’t started that year, he might never have got to where he is, because he had stopped playing in the Q-School. It was like a gift that the Challenge Tour began then.
“And since then the Challenge Tour has been important for many Italian players.”
Indeed it has, and time will only tell whether this current crop can follow in the footsteps of Rocca.
Keep an eye out for the third and final part of our series with Alberto Binaghi as the Italian Golf Federation coach tells us how he played a part in the creation of the Challenge Tour and recalls the famous story of when he almost lost his life when struck by lightning on a golf course.
