Marc Pozzo
Monday has never been a good day, as it’s the day after the weekend. But I woke up to this news, which really made my day as it was never in doubt for me; Francesco Molinari won the European Tours Golfer of the Year Award, to cap a memorable 2018 for the Italian.
Molinari became the first Italian to win a major when he clinched the British Open at Carnoustie earlier this year. That triumph followed his victory in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and a maiden PGA Tour title in the Quicken Loans National.
The 36-year-old was also the first European player to compile a perfect 5-0 record in the Ryder Cup as he won his singles match in the hosts’ victory over the United States, having already teamed up with Tommy Fleetwood to become the first European pair to win all four of their matches together.
Molinari rounded off a remarkable year by becoming the first Italian to win the Race to Dubai last month, holding off Masters champion Patrick Reed and 2017 Race to Dubai champion Fleetwood to finish the year as the European Tour’s number one.
Another reason for a good Monday, is that my beloved Liverpool sit proudly on top of the premiership unbeaten, after Manchester City fell to their first defeat of the season at the hands of Chelsea on Sunday night. While City are a great side – that I won’t dispute – and still remain the favourites to win the title, I will enjoy this pending moment hopefully for weeks and months to come.
Tuesday night at Anfield was another big night for the club as Liverpool, made hard work of their last 16 qualification in the Champions League with a hard fought 1-0 win over Napoli, thanks to the only goal of the game from Mo Salah which means they finish second behind Paris St Germain. Hopefully more silverware in 2019 for the Mighty Reds.
The Cape Town Sevens last weekend in Cape Town looked like a real fun weekend. Not so fun for our Cheetahs who found the going a little tough finishing last in the tournament although some improved performances. Let’s be honest they had in their pool New Zealand who beat them 35-0, South Africa 43-0 and then Samoa 32-12.
In the Losers Bowl, they narrowly lost 28- 24 to Canada before being upended by Kenya 31-19 . I spent most of my weekend sat on my sofa watching this great series and was really impressed for the second week in a row with the USA, although they stuttered in the final against Fiji with too many handling errors which cost them the game 29-15.
The physicality of the Americans was impressive, with the burly Danny Barrett a standout.
It may have been their second final defeat in a row but they can take some consolation that they now top the overall series standings after the first two rounds. There’s no doubt that the Americans are improving and will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2018/19 season.
Credit though to Fiji the first trophy on South African soil since 2005 in George where the series used to be played before it became a major tourist and money making show piece.
It’s one event that’s on my bucket list. The next HSBC series event will be towards the end of January in Hamilton New Zealand.
Finally, it’s a big weekend for local cup double champions FC Platinum.
Just off a remarkable season, they won the Castle Lager Premiership for back to back titles, they then won the Castle Challenge Cup to make the trophy cabinet look good. To cap it off, the club took four awards back to Zvishavane last Friday night at the Castle awards including coach of the year and soccer star of the year.
This weekend they travel to Congo Brazzaville to take on AS Otoho D’oyo in the CAF Champions league. The match is being played on Sunday at 15.30pm. If they continue on their brilliant run of form they will definitely make it to the group stage of the CAF Champions league. Good luck FC Platinum.
