The US has not won a Ryder Cup on European soil since 1993, and Johnson himself has never been to Italy, but already there was a sense that he embraced the challenge of undoing 30 years of history.
Depending on who you talk to, the course is either a disaster waiting to happen or just another in a long line of so-so Old World venues for the biennial contest between Europe and the United States.
One week after Rasmus Hojgaard won the European Masters, the Dane’s identical twin brother, Nicolai, is, at age 20, the youngest champion of the Italian Open.