All roads lead to Rome

Sky commentators Mark Roe and Jay Townsend were in complete agreement – the 5-iron Guido Migliozzi fired to the 72nd green to set up his French Open triumph was the best shot seen on the DP World Tour in 2022.

Roe, who made more than 500 appearances on the European circuit and bagged three victories, went even further. He reckoned that because the 18th

at Le Golf National in Paris is “one of the hardest par 4s in the universe” – with water in front of the green, behind it, and to the right – plus the fact that the tournament was on the line made it one of the greatest shots ever seen in Europe. High praise, but fully deserved.

Migliozzi’s approach from 192 yards was nothing short of sensational. It cleared the water by 15 feet – any further on that line, and it would have almost certainly finished over the back of the green, in the drink – and fed down to the flag, pulling up just six feet away. It would have been a horrible anti-climax if he had missed the putt. He didn’t!

That birdie completed a stunning nine-under-par 62, equalling the course record and earning the 25-year-old Italian a third DP World Tour victory by one over long-time leader, Rasmus Hojgaard.

Migliozzi, a hugely likeable character, who speaks excellent English, admits there was an element of luck in the shot. But only a tiny one.

“When I was standing over the shot my caddie was saying the line I chose was too tight, too dangerous with the water lurking all around the green,” he explains. “But I was confident in my ability to pull it off, although I’d probably have settled for a 20-footer. I was aiming further left than the line it landed on. I cut my approach a bit more than I wanted and it ended up a lot better than I could have hoped. But you could never call it a mishit.