Rome, Oct 9 (IANS): The Italian Open will tee off from Thursday at the picturesque Olgiata Golf Course in Rome, Italy. The course last hosted this event in 2002 when Ian Poulter took the title.

Fifth of the Eight Rolex Series events and a part of the Race to Dubai, the European tour event will see some of the best in the business including one of the all-time Italian greats, Francesco Molinari in action who won the competition twice back in 2006 and 2016.

Molinari, who is currently ranked 11th in the world, hasn't had a good 2019 season as his best finish came at The Masters in April earlier this year where he ended at T-5.

Major players to look out for will also include the Irishman Shane Lowry who recently won the 148th Open Championship and is currently ranked second in Race to Dubai. Scottish Open Champion, Bernd Wiesberger and Englishman Danny Willett, winner of the BMW PGA Championship, will also be vying for the USD 7,000,000 prize purse.

Indian representation will be seen in the form of Shubhankar Sharma who missed the cut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He will be looking to bounce back after his below par performance in the recent past.

Gaganjeet Bhullar also had a similar run at the tournament. Though he finished above Sharma but missed the cut. Bhullar has been struggling to find form off-late with his best performance coming at the Scandinavian Invitation amongst the last five tournaments with a T-53 finish.

S.S.P Chawrasia has been going on non-stop during this European tour season but luck hasn't favoured him much. Chawrasia's best finish in the last five tournaments came at last week's Mutuactivos Open de España where he finished at T-55, after having missed the cut in the previous four European Tour events.

It will be an uphill task for the Indian trio as they are all looking to find form. Day 1 of the European tour event will be broadcast on DSport on October 10 from 1.30 p.m. IST.