CANNOCK, ENGLAND | Europe’s bid to regain the Ryder Cup next year might have hit a few bumps in the road in recent weeks, but Italy’s amateur golfers already are riding the wave of excitement ahead of the capital city Rome’s hosting of the match in 13 months.
Fresh from Filippo Celli winning the European Amateur Championship, the silver medal for finishing low amateur in the Open Championship, and also landing a first top-10 on the DP World Tour at the ISPS Handa World Invitational, his friend and national teammate Alessia Nobilio claimed the English Women’s Open Stroke Play Championship at Beau Desert Golf Club in Staffordshire on Sunday.
The 20-year-old from Milan, a redshirt sophomore at UCLA, easily might have been fooled into thinking the venue was French at first glance of the name. The heathland layout is a little piece of the Surrey sandbelt in the English Midlands, designed with shrewd care by the great Herbert Fowler. It made for a neat double for the year after the men’s edition of this event, the Brabazon Trophy, was held at another of his creations, the East Course at Saunton Golf Club.
Beau Desert is a gloriously cunning test that features elevation changes, bouncy fairways, fiendishly sloping putting surfaces and canny bunker placement. Club legend has it that only one winner of the 17 Open Championship qualifiers hosted here ended the 36 holes of competition in red numbers.
That difficulty also was present for a field hoping to emulate Jodi Ewart Shadoff, who won this championship back-to-back in 2007-08, and Charley Hull, who claimed the 2011 title. Indeed, Nobilio opened with a 4-over-par 74 that left her just four blows back of the lead after 18 holes. She responded with a second-round 68 that was one of just two sub-70 scores recorded all week and then tied the 54-hole lead with England’s Jess Hall at 6-over 216.
“You know, coming here, to England, Wales and Scotland, the grass is different, the wind is different, and the bounce is different, too. The first few days we have to adapt to all of that and, in fact, the bounces here at Beau Desert were really quite special, so I am very proud to win.”
Alessia Nobilio
For much of the final round, the last pairing out conducted a head-to-head battle as Hall spent much of it looking to be the likely winner. She was 2-under through seven holes and four shots clear of the field, but a four-putt on the 10th green and a three-putt on the last were first cruel and then fatal blows to her hopes.
Nobilio had maintained her challenge courtesy of a resilient touch on the greens that allowed her to drain difficult par putts and also grasp what few birdie opportunities came her way. Playing the last, she was aware that Denmark’s Christina Thouber had circled birdie at both the 16th and 17th holes for a second day in succession to set a 7-over 287 total, which Nobilio needed a final birdie to equal.
Nobilio smashed a bold blow at the green after finding the fairway, came up short in the bunker, splashed out to 12 feet and drained yet another pressure putt. The pair were finally split when the Italian, winner of the silver medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics, dropped a 20-foot birdie chance at the third extra hole, prompting a fist pump from the new champion and an exuberant sigh of relief from her “Papa,” whose supply of energy was quite clearly flagging by the side of the green.
“I made two birdies in the last two holes and then another with the playoff putt as well,” Nobilio said. “But I also made a long par putt at the 13th, which was really important to keep me in the hunt, so I have to absolutely thank my putting today. My long game was not so good as it usually is, so I was a little stressed, which makes it so nice that my putter was working.
And what of the Ryder Cup, the sport’s greatest rivalry transported to the Eternal City?
“It is a beautiful opportunity,” she said. “We can let Italian people know all about golf because it is not a big sport in my country. And, for sure, my win and Filippo’s are a consequence of the support of the (Italian Golf) Federation, and it has been boosted by the Ryder Cup coming to Rome. There is a lot of excitement among Italian golfers, and we cannot wait for next year.”
Before that trans-Atlantic scrap, Nobilio had earned an exemption to Final Qualifying for the 2023 AIG Women’s Open and will hope to make it into the field at Walton Heath, not only because it is likely to be her major debut, but also because it is yet another Herbert Fowler test.
RESULTS
Matt Cooper