WENTWORTH, U.K. -- Nice guys do finish first.
Quiet man Francesco Molinari crushed Rory McIlroy's hopes of a second BMW PGA Championship with a clinical display of ball-striking on the West Course at Wentworth and with it confounded even his own words of conventional wisdom.
At this year's World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play the Italian suggested he lacked the killer instinct to succeed in head-to-head golf. On Sunday he proved otherwise claiming a two-shot victory at the headquarters of the European Tour.
Starting the day on 13-under-par, alongside McIlroy and four clear of the rest of the field, Molinari, 35, was effectively thrust into another mano a mano-style contest and his response was not only stunning, but a complete subversion of even his own expectations.