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| The Richest
Circuit of the World |
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Article
published on the Italian daily newspaper Gazzetta dello
Sport
(January 11, 2001) |
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Canonica To The Conquest
of America
"Playing here is like getting a promotion"
Carolina Durante |
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The
PGA Tour that begins today is almost like a debut
for Italy. At 10:15 a.m., Tucson (Arizona) time, 7:15
p.m. in Italy, Emanuele Canonica will crush the first
of his powerful drives from the start of hole 1 of
the Omni Tucson National Golf
Club and will make his first appearance in
the world's richest professionals' golf circuit.
Only nine days ago, on January 2nd , he had departed
for Las Vegas where he took a two days full immersion
with Butch Harmon,
Tiger Wood's coach.
"A ritual against bad luck", says Giorgio
Bordoni, the coach who follows him all year
long. "Actually, Butch told him nothing new,
but since he brought us good luck last year, we wanted
to repeat the experience". "We worked on
the short shots, my weak point, and on the putting
that recently caused me some problems" says Emanuele
called Peppo, who is realizing the dream of his life.
"Playing in the United States is the biggest
ambition for a professional golf player. I consider
it a promotion, like when from the Challenge Tour
you qualify for the European Tour.
The strange thing is that for the American players,
there is absolutely no difference, for them both circuits
are the same. They were rather surprised that the Swedish
Johansson and I had to face such a punitive trial
as the qualifications to be admitted to the PGA Tour,
after having closed the season placing ourselves 22nd
and 27th in the European ranking". |
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Peppo
is very enthusiastic, this is his own 30th birthday present:
the special consideration and the attentions received
from his employer go way beyond his expectations. "The
PGA Tour grants to each player a laptop, a Palm
size PC, telephone calls, lower airfares, just to mention
some of the many benefits that we can forget about having
in Europe."
Not to mention the numerous sponsors that have already
gotten in touch with Guido Callioni,
the n° 1 manager, who sticks close to me as a shadow
when we are in the United States.
The day before the debut, Peppo confesses to be exited,
he fears not to able to satisfy his own expectations other
than not to enter (week after week), in the richest tournaments.
This is a big torment for him. The order of admission
follows a strict hierarchic order based on the members
of categories. Tiger Woods
will not be in Tucson, (who crew-cut his hair after having
dyed it blonde), since he is busy playing a tournament
in Hawaii, reserved to 33 "big". Here, instead
are Lee Janzen, Curtis
Strange, the German Langer (from years resident
in Florida), Fred Couples
and John Daly.
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