By Craig Swan

Copyright dailyrecord

Matt Fitzpatrick reckons Edoardo Molinari remains the under-appreciated hero of Ryder Cup Europe. The Italian ace has been the analytics guru for Luke Donald’s triumphant team in both their Rome and New York successes. Molinari also works on a personal level with Fitzpatrick during the regular season and he feels his input is vastly underestimated outside of the Euro camp. He said: “I think under-appreciated is the right thing. He is very appreciated by Team Europe, but I think in the outside world, it’s very much: Oh, he’s just the stats guy or whatever. “But, to me, Edoardo is No. 1 in the business by a complete mile. How he’s helped Luke and the vice captains and how he’s shaped the team, pairings, qualification, has been outstanding in my opinion. I think there’s a lot of credit that needs to go to Edoardo as well. “In golf, data have been around for a while now and it’s been used in all sorts of ways. I personally use it to probably the most extreme amount in order to find any little percentages I can in my game and improve. “It’s definitely a big thing, like I say, Eduardo last week was absolutely fantastic the way that he’s helped the team, as well as the other vibes.” Fitzpatrick response came as he asked on the prospect of Edoardo’s brother Francesco being a viable candidate to become captain in the event of Donald deciding to step away and reject the chance of a third term for Adare Manor in 2027. The 2018 Open champion has been vice-captain to the skipper in his two wins and Fitzpatrick added: “Fran is a great character to have around. He’s got great sense of humour. He’s very similar to Luke in that he’s quite quiet and reserved and probably very analytical in his thinking. Obviously a great option. “I’m sure there’s plenty of people that are good enough to do the job. Obviously Luke, like Rahmbo [Jon Rahm] said, he’s created a high bar for the next guys that come in. Fran was fantastic, as were all the vice captains. I had a lot of good conversations with them all.” Fitzpatrick’s conversations helped him boost his Ryder Cup record that 1-7 going into Bethpage and he said: “There was obviously questions about me being picked in the first place, the people that were raising those questions obviously didn’t look at my season from May. From May onwards, I had been playing very, very well and that was pleasing to me. “I was never thinking to myself: Should I be on this team or not? I had confidence from the start and to do what we did on the first day with Ludvig [Aberg] and Saturday afternoon with Tyrrell [Hatton] , as well, and even the singles [against Bryson DeChambeau] to an extent, to play as well as I did there for the first nine, ten holes was obviously ideal. “Bryson’s character, he’s got a lot of energy. It was very helpful to get off to a great start. To be up so early was helpful at that point just to keep the crowd not really on his side as such. Much more tame. “No issues with Bryson. I knew what he was about and that’s what excites the fans over there and that’s great. “It was obviously a good match. I wish it ended a little bit differently, but in the end, it was a half-point. “It was a big week for me and felt like I proved a point with the pick. It’s something I wanted to do for a long time in the three previous that I played in.”