Edoardo Molinari, who once had a “very weird” experience with Tiger Woods during the Masters back in 2006, has booked his place in next month’s U.S. Open at Oakmont
Oscar Maung-Haley US Sports Reporter
07:43 ET, 20 May 2025Updated 07:43 ET, 20 May 2025
Tiger Woods and Edoardo Molinari back in 2006(Image: Getty)
Ryder Cup vice-captain Edoardo Molinari will be at Oakmont Country Club next month after he secured a US Open spot via Final Qualifying.
The Italian secured one of the eight places going at Monday’s event in Surrey at Walton Health, which saw US Open hopefuls compete in a 36-hole event for a spot at the third major of the year. All eyes come June will be the likes of world no.1 Scottie Scheffler, who won the PGA Championship to claim the third major of his career, and Rory McIlroy, who after his Masters success back in April, had a weekend to forget at Quail Hollow.
Molinari, who needed to book his place at Oakmont via a playoff, will be joined by Jordan Smith, Joakim Lagergren, Guido Migliozzi, Frederic Lacroix, Sam Bairstow, Jacques Kruyswijk and Andrea Pavan stateside next month.
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While major success has evaded the 44-year-old during his lengthy career, Molinari once ended up having a “weird” experience at the 2006 Masters, where he ended up playing alongside Tiger Woods.
After having won the US Amateur at Merion back in 2005, Molinari qualified for the Masters the following year, which meant he would be playing the first round at Augusta with Woods, the then defending champion.
However, the experience, while “incredible” was one that left Molinari feeling “very weird”, especially after Woods, who was at the peak of his powers, introduced himself to the Italian on the first tee at Augusta.
“It was an incredible week,” Molinari told Fried Egg Golf.
Molinari played at the Masters with Woods back in 2006
“The thing is, I didn’t know this until I won the US Amateur, when you win the US Amateur, you play the following year at The Masters with the defending champion. And Tiger happened to win in 2005, so basically I was waiting for this tee time with Tiger at The Masters for six, seven months.
“I just remember taking a lot of notes from the week. A friend of mine said you write them down, and it was a great idea because I still have this small diary with some thoughts and everything that happened that almost 20 years down the line, you’re starting to forget.
“The feeling was very weird to be honest. I remember not even being nervous on the first tee, it was like something between a dream, a movie set, it was just very, very weird.
“A lot of people around the tee obviously, with the first hole playing with Tiger, and he introduces himself like every other golfer, ‘hi, I’m Tiger Woods, nice to meet you’. It was weird.
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“Francesco [Molinari, his brother] was caddying and I remember anytime Tiger went into a green side bunker, he was the first one to be right next to him trying to clean his ball.
Molinari added: “It was just an experience for both of us, which made me realise that a, even if I won the US Amateur, I was still far, far away from being able to compete in a major championship, but also you see other people play, you see those kind of courses that as an amateur, you don’t even dream about playing The Masters. It was an unbelievable experience.”
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