COSTANTINO ROCCA MAKES
SENIORS DEBUT THIS YEAR

An increased prize fund and an appearance by Italy’s most decorated golfer, Costantino Rocca, will boost this year’s Sharp Italian Seniors Open, which has grown into one of the most popular events on the European Seniors Tour.
The 2007 Sharp Italian Seniors Open will be played at the historic Circolo Golf Venezia for a fourth successive season from May 18-20 and will carry a prize fund of €200,000 – an increase of €25,000 from when Sam Torrance captured the title in 2006.
Among the new names heading to Venice this May is Rocca, who joined the Seniors Tour on his 50th birthday last December following a hugely successful career on the European Tour.
Rocca collected five European Tour titles, including the prestigious PGA Championship in 1996, and remains the only Italian to have played in the Ryder Cup, having featured in 1993 plus the winning European teams of 1995 and 1997.
During that time he never quite managed to win the Italian Open but memorably finished third behind Torrance in 1995, so the prospect of the two Ryder Cup team-mates renewing their rivalry at Circolo Golf Venezia is one of the many enticing plotlines to this year’s event.