Molinari brothers eye golf World Cup boost

Italy's Molinari brothers said their historic World Cup triumph could boost the game's profile in their native country -- before admitting they preferred watching football on TV.

Italy's Molinari brothers -- Francesco (front) and Edoardo -- have won the World Cup at Mission Hills by a single stroke after a thrilling tussle with Ireland and Sweden -- the first time the nation has lifted the trophy.

Edoardo and younger brother Francesco won a thrilling three-way tussle at Mission Hills Sunday with Ireland and Sweden, edging the contest by one stroke to lift the cup for Italy for the first time.

"I think, well, it will help a lot to get a lot of people closer to golf and maybe try and have a go at it and try and become golfers," said Francesco.

When asked where he rated the achievement in Italy's golfing history, the 27-year-old said the victory, worth 1.7 million dollars, was hard to place.

"I don't know, I mean, it's hard to say. Probably Costantino (Rocca), you know, almost winning the (British) Open and winning the Ryder Cup. It's maybe a bit higher up than us. But I think we are just below that and it feels amazing."

But despite the expected publicity for the win, Francesco Molinari admitted the game would struggle to compete with Italy's passion -- football.

"I think, I mean it's not going to be easy to overtake the football games, but I think it's going to be big obviously because any World Cup in any sport is really big," said the 37th-ranked player, who won the Italian Open in 2006.

When asked whether they preferred watching football or golf on TV, both players replied: "Football."

But Francesco said he hoped their tournament win would catch the attention even of those who do not play golf.

"Hopefully the game is growing a bit more now with (teenager) Matteo Manassero coming out this year, and I think it will definitely help to grow the number of golfers," he said.

Manassero won the silver medal as the leading amateur at this year's British Open.

Italy kept their cool when 63rd-ranked Edoardo Molinari found a bunker with the second shot at the 18th, Francesco playing a perfect shot under pressure to within two feet of the pin.

It left his brother to tap in to seal the victory at the 5.5-million-dollar Omega Mission Hills World Cup near Shenzhen in southern China with a total score of 29 under par after two rounds of fourball and two rounds of foursomes.

Long-time leaders Ireland just missed out on forcing a play-off, paying the price for some inconsistent golf on the last day and the Swedes, defending champions, also pushed Italy all the way, finishing in tied second.

Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell called Saturday for top players to turn up to the World Cup to boost the profile of the tournament and take it back to what it was "30 or 40 years ago."

Edoardo, 28, who won the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan earlier in November and topped the European Challenge Tour money list, said the European nations had fielded strong outfits, refusing to be drawn on who he thought had fielded a weakened team.

But he added: "There were a few teams that didn't bring out their best teams, but still they have great players. So I mean, it's always nice to win even in front of so-called second teams."

A number of stellar names were missing from the United States team, who fielded Nick Watney and John Merrick, ranked 32 and 141 respectively.