TEAM CUP

January 12, 2025

Francesco Molinari

Abu Dhabi Golf Resort

Continental Europe

Quick Quotes

Q. Great up-and-down at the last, how good did that feel?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, pretty good to be honest. Today we had a good game. We couldn't make a putt, both of us, for most of round. Just a poor tee shot on 18 but then obviously I saw Chema, Olazábal, and I told him, "I need to channel, my inner Seve to make 4." Seemed to work.

Obviously disappointed with the week. But you know, we need to be fair, and the GB&I guys played some great golf, and they were better than us on the greens, especially all week.

Q. Obviously beaten by a decent margin. Is that the momentum, they got the opening series 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 and seemed to ride the wave the whole week?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I think I probably could have done a slightly better job with the boys. They gave it all they had. Our side was maybe more inexperienced players in this kind of event but they are great guys and they did their best.

GB&I team was just too hard for us this week.

Q. How big a loss was Nicolai to your team? That Rasmus/Nicolai combination could have been something electric.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, definitely not ideal. Thomas Björn should have been a vice captain, and I think he was a bit sick all week. A few things went wrong from the start of the week. We missed Nicolai.

But to be fair, Julien showed up last minute and played some terrific golf. I'm glad the younger guys got exposed to this sort of environment, and yeah, we'll be back in two years trying to win it back.