Costantino Rocca - Career Outline

Career Outline

Rocca was born in Almenno San Bartolomeo, Bergamo. He started out as a caddy, winning the Italian Caddie Championship in 1978, and turned professional in 1981 at the age of 24.

In the 1980s, Rocca struggled to retain a European Tour card and made several trips to the Qualifying School. He began to make major strides in his career in 1990, which was the first season that he finished high enough on the Order of Merit to gain a tour card automatically. By 1993, he had risen to sixth in the Order of Merit, and his two best seasons were 1995 and 1996, when he finished fourth. He won five titles on the tour, the first of which was the 1993 Open de Lyon and the most prestigious of which was the 1996 Volvo PGA Championship.

In 1995, Rocca sank a 60 foot (18 metre) putt on the 18th at St Andrews to make the birdie he needed force a play-off with the American John Daly, but Daly took the title. As Rocca approached the final hole, he was one shot behind Daly. Rocca's long drive was only yards from the green, but his second shot resulted in a fluffed chip where he forgot to follow through. The ball trickled a mere five yards into the "Valley of Sin." From the Valley of Sin, well below the level of the green, Rocca putted and holed his birdie putt. The jovial Italian instantly fell to the ground and began pounding the ground with his fists out of joy.

Rocca's showing at the Open helped qualify him for the Ryder Cup in 1995. The Italian punched a five-iron into the cup for a hole-in-one at Oak Hill's 167-yard sixth hole. It was only the third hole-in-one in Ryder Cup history.

In 1997, Rocca played the final round of The Masters Tournament with 21-year-old Tiger Woods, nine strokes behind him. He finished 3-under-par, and watched Woods' legendary moment. Since the turn of the millennium, age has begun to catch up with Rocca and he has fallen out of the top hundred on the Order of Merit. He made his European Seniors Tour debut at the 2007 Sharp Italian Seniors Open, and won his first senior tournament two weeks later at the Irish Seniors Open. He ended 2008 with a record seven top finishes and ranked ninth in the Order of Merit. His best placing was tied third in the Azores Senior Open.

Rocca was the first Italian to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup, and remained the only Italian to do so until 2010, when Francesco Molinari qualified for the Ryder Cup held in Celtic Manor and Edoardo Molinari was a captain's pick. He appeared in 1993, 1995 and 1997, and had a 6-5-0 win-loss-half record, including 1 win and 2 losses in singles matches. That one singles win came in a crucial match against Tiger Woods in the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama, which Rocca won 4 & 2 to help Europe claim the cup. The victory against Woods was one of Woods' first losses in singles play. His 53% winning record in the Cup is one of the best in European team history. In 1999, Rocca almost qualified for the Cup again after he won the West of Ireland Golf Classic.