Italian Open Tips 2025

If you’re getting a feeling of déjà vu reading this selection then that will be for good reason. Having backed John Parry at the last regular DP World Tour event, the KLM Open where he finished in a tie for 55^th, and prior to that at the Soudal Open where he finished in a tie for 4^th, dropping him this week on a course that he mastered on the Challenge Tour last September doesn’t seem sensible to me so I’ll back him accordingly.

That victory here at Argentario GC on the Challenge Tour was the final piece of the jigsaw which saw the Englishman regain his card for the top level of European golf, having dropped as low as the EuroPro Tour in 2021. That was some fall from grace having won the Vivendi Cup on the 2010 European Tour circuit, however that’s all well and truly behind him now.

With his card in his back pocket, 2^nd at Leopard Creek was followed by victory at the Mauritius Open before the Tour broke up for Christmas. Another narrow defeat in Kenya before his aforementioned effort in Belgium all adds up to an impressive Race to Dubai campaign that sees him in 4^th place in the rankings and in with a great chance of snaring a PGA Tour card for next season.

Shorter, positional courses would appear to be the 38 year-old’s best fit given what we’ve seen since his return to the top level, and his victory here last year reinforces that point nicely. With the likes of recent winner Nicolai von Dellingshausen and the highly rated Angel Ayora behind him that week, the fact that the event was on the second tier shouldn’t render it as irrelevant in my view.

5^th on Tour for SG Approach and 7^th for SG Tee to Green look like a great fit for this test and I’m happy stick with Parry for another week here in Italy.

A short, resort-level, parkland course screams Andy Sullivan to me and the fact that the Englishman’s form has picked up ahead of this week’s event means that I cannot leave him out of the staking plan here in Italy.

Three times a winner back in 2015 in a stretch of form that ultimately saw him qualify by rights for the 2016 Ryder Cup, it’s his 2020 victory at the English Championship that interests me most this week. Hanbury Manor was the host course that summer as golf got back underway after the Covid lockdowns and Sullivan mastered that short, parkland Par 71, eventually running out as the 7-stroke winner at a massive 27-under.

That effort came after finishes of 4^th at the British Masters and 41^st at the Hero Open the week before where he was top-20 heading into the weekend, and he arrives here with even more eye-catching form of 11^th at the Soudal Open, 17^th in Austria and 7^th last time out in the Netherlands.

Generally a short, tidy operator from tee-to-green, his improvement in form recently has coincided with a spark with the putter, which is no bad thing heading into a low-scoring week. 23^rd at the Hainan Open back at the end of April was the first sign that he was putting better once again where he gained over 9 strokes with the flat stick that week to rank 3^rd for that statistic. 7^th for SG Putting at the Soudal Open was followed by 13^th on the same count last time out at the KLM Open, where he ended up SG positive in all categories.

As with many here, this will be his first competitive look at Argentario GC, however 5^th in the 2018 Italian Open and 3^rd in Sicily earlier that same year indicate a level of comfort in the region and I suspect he’ll hit the ground running here this week.

As a golf punter sometimes you have to forgive and forget, and having had the chance to wean myself off of backing Shaun Norris since he surrendered a 4-stroke lead at the Joburg Open back in March, it’s time for me to get back on board this week in Italy.

Aside from the China Open where he finished in a tie for 15^th, the South African has plied his trade on other Tours since that effort in his homeland, as he has done for much of his career. 2 wins on the DP World Tour, 2 wins on the Asian Tour, 4 wins on the Sunshine Tour, and after his victory at the Hana Bank Invitational the week before last, it’s now 7 wins on the Japan Tour in what’s undoubtedly been an excellent career for the 43 year-old.

The fact that he tees it up here in Italy a fortnight after that most recent success is interesting given that he won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in December a fortnight after his last win at that level at the Nippon Series JT Cup. The motivation for him to push on from that win is clear though – there are two Open Championship places available this week here in Italy for the top non-exempt finishers, plus there are a further five spots available at the conclusion of next week’s BMW International Open – Norris currently ranks 6^th.

That aforementioned Joburg Open effort was on a course seriously shortened by altitude and that followed a weather-reduced South African Open on a 6,800 yard track in Durban where he led going into the final round, so I see no reason why this week’s short track here in Italy shouldn’t suit on course debut.

1^st on Tour for Stroke Average, Birdies, Bogey Avoidance, Par-4 Scoring and SG Putting is an incredible tally for Norris at this stage of the season and he has all the tools to go seriously contend this week.

A move to a new venue allows us to overlook the otherwise underwhelming Italian Open form of Darius van Driel, instead we can focus on some of the good golf that the Dutchman has been playing of late and his fit to this year’s venue.

As a sub-290 driver of the golf ball, those tests that put more emphasis on performance from the second shot and in suit the 36 year-old far better than the bomber-friendly tracks on the circuit, and it’s no surprise that his to date only DP World Tour victory came on such a course at the Magical Kenya Open last year. His 2-stroke victory was his first win for nearly five years at any level and came with the kind of assured performance that belied his maiden tag at the time.

Darius had the chance to double his trophy tally last month at the Soudal Open, eventually losing out in a 3-man play-off to a flying Kristoffer Reitan on another short, parkland course that shares style and agronomy elements to this week’s task.

2^nd for Driving Accuracy, 17^th for GIR and 1^st for Scrambling that week, whilst also topping the SG Tee to Green statistic, are the kind of numbers I wouldn’t be surprised to see this week’s champion reproduce, and he hit the ball nicely again on his last start in his homeland, eventually finishing in a tie for 26^th whilst ranking 7^th for GIR and 5^th for SG Approach.

The venue this week is a leveller for much of the field, however despite an Italian Open form line of 30/MC/MC/MC on other tracks, his debut effort in that sequence did see him in 8^th place after both 36 and 54 holes, suggesting that he may well feel a little more comfortable in this part of the world than his bare results indicate.

To conclude this week’s team, I’ll employ a similar logic to that of van Driel with my final selection Nacho Elvira.

At an average of 294 yards from off the tee, the Spaniard sits outside the top 100 in terms of Driving Distance for the season to date which points me in the direction of parkland tracks such as this being a good fit, and his CV would concur with that point.

London Golf Club was the scene of his breakthrough win in 2021, a mid-length par 72 with an emphasis on accurate approach play over brute power, and he doubled his tally at last year’s Soudal Open which as I’ve already articulated above carries enough correlation to be considered a good pointer for this week.

2^nd behind Darius van Driel in that aforementioned Kenya Open last year is further evidence that Nacho has a preferred type of test, and the setup here at Argentario GC should suit his eye nicely.

2025 has been solid if unspectacular for the 38 year-old with seven top-26 finishes in his last ten starts with his effort at the Turkish Airlines Open last month the only top-10, however there’s enough to pick out of his statistics to suggest he’s playing some competitive golf.

2^nd for SG Approach and 6^th for SG Tee to Green at the Kenya Open was virtually repeated the week after where he ranked 3^rd on both counts, with middling efforts with the putter the only thing letting him down both weeks. Positive then that he gained nearly 7 strokes with the putter at the Soudal Open last month and nearly 4 strokes last time out in the Netherlands.

4 straight missed cuts in this event are of less consequence than some other weeks given the change in venue, although there is some evidence that he’s happy here in Italy having finished 3^rd in this event back in 2016.