Staff WriterFrancesco Molinari is back in China, back at Mission Hills, and back in the sort of territory where his golf tends to look like it has been assembled by a watchmaker. The Italian returns to the Middle Kingdom for the Hainan Classic presented by MAEXTRO, opening the DP World Tour’s Asian Swing with the kind of tidy recent form that suggests he may yet have another serious chapter left in him.
That matters, because this is not merely another stop stamped into a crowded passport. It is Molinari’s first event in China for seven years, and it arrives at a venue that stirs old memories of Asian success.
He won the 2009 Omega Mission Hills World Cup in Shenzhen alongside his brother Edoardo, then backed it up with another strong showing in Shanghai at the WGC-HSBC Champions the following year. Not bad going for a man whose game has always preferred its drama served neat and understated.
Now 43, and still one of the most technically reliable players of his generation, Molinari returns with two top-ten finishes from three starts this season. That is not a trumpet blast, but it is certainly a firm clearing of the throat.
A Return That Carries Weight
Golf has a habit of moving on without ceremony. One minute you are a fixture, the next you are a familiar silhouette trying to force your way back into the light. Molinari knows that better than most. His last start came at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, and while rust can creep into any player’s game after a break, there is enough recent evidence to suggest he has not come to Hainan merely to admire the scenery.
This week offers something more meaningful than nostalgia. The Hainan Classic is the opening event of the DP World Tour’s Asian Swing, with the top three players at its conclusion earning places at the US PGA Championship in May. There is also a prize fund of $2.55 million and 3,500 Race to Dubai points on offer, which tends to sharpen the senses rather nicely.
Molinari said: “It’s nice to be back now, it’s been a few years since my last time in China. It’s always been a very interesting culture to come and live and see. Obviously, China is a big country, so I’ve seen a little bit and been to a few different places, but it’s nice to be back here, especially after 2011 we were here – it’s a long time ago. I sort of remember the place, but it will be nice to be back on the same golf course after so many years.”
That sounds like a player pleased to be back. It also sounds like a man measuring the week properly: fond memory in one hand, professional obligation in the other.
Mission Hills Offers More Than a Warm Welcome
The tournament setup has a slightly unusual wrinkle. A pro-am competition will run concurrently with the professional individual event over the first two rounds. Teams of one professional and one amateur will rotate across the Blackstone and Vintage courses before the professionals finish the week on Blackstone alone.
That matters because course setup, rhythm and early scoring will all be shaped by the contrast between the two layouts. Blackstone, by Molinari’s own reading, is the sterner assignment. Vintage may be a touch more generous, though not by enough to let anyone switch their brain off and start swinging like a man late for his flight.
Molinari said: “Obviously, the Blackstone I played in 2011. The Vintage Course I played yesterday. It’s interesting, some wide fairways and some not so wide, especially towards the end, the last four or five holes. Some funky greens, very big slopes.
The greens are actually quite big but the portion of the green where they can put the flag is not that big, so irons to the green are important because you don’t want to be putting from too far away or chipping. I think it’s a good test, especially in the afternoon when the wind picks up a little bit.
Two good courses, maybe the Blackstone is a little bit harder and the Vintage a little bit easier as you would expect, but I don’t think there’s going to be a huge difference between the two.”
That is vintage Molinari, even in conversation: precise, practical, and already three steps into the problem. Wide fairways are useful, certainly, but only until the approach shot starts asking difficult questions.
Small effective pin areas on large, sloping greens put a premium on iron control, distance discipline and patience. In other words, the sort of week that should suit a player who has built a career on avoiding silly mistakes and making the game look less noisy than it usually is.
Form, Rust and the Strange Timing of a Season
Momentum in golf is a slippery thing. It can feel sturdy on paper and disappear by Thursday lunchtime. Yet Molinari arrives in Hainan with enough encouragement to suggest his game is not merely present, but potentially moving in the right direction.
Molinari said: “It’s been a good start [to the season] – a little bit start-stop, because obviously I played Sun City and then stopped for the holidays, started again in Dubai and then had another break the last few weeks. Confidence is good, it’s pretty high, definitely getting better.
I might be a little rusty coming into this week, but having said that, the weather at home in Italy has been getting better so the practice getting into this week has definitely been better than what it was getting into Dubai, so I’m hoping for another good week and keep going with those results for as long as possible.”
That is a fair summary of the golfer’s eternal condition: confident, slightly rusty, mildly suspicious of both feelings at once. Still, two top tens in three starts is the kind of evidence even the most superstitious player can live with. Francesco Molinari may not arrive as the week’s loudest name, but he does arrive with substance, and golf usually rewards substance eventually.
A Strong Field and a Strong Local Presence
This will not be a one-man procession through tropical air and polite applause. England’s Andy Sullivan, currently fourth in the Race to Dubai Delivered by DP World Rankings, is in the field and beginning his four-event Asian Swing. He has history in China too, making this his 11th appearance in the country and his second in Hainan after last year’s inaugural tournament.
Then there is the sizeable Chinese contingent, with 25 home players teeing it up this week. That gives the tournament real local weight, rather than the token sort that some international events wheel out and then forget by Friday afternoon.
Seventeen-year-old Yanhan Zhou will have the particular thrill and burden of playing in front of family, friends and local supporters, while established names such as Wenyi Ding and Ashun Wu bring further quality and familiarity for home galleries. Add in recent 2026 Race to Dubai winners Nacho Elvira, Freddy Schott and Dan Bradbury, and the field has enough bite to make any early complacency look foolish.
What This Week Could Mean
For Francesco Molinari, this is about more than reliving old success in China. It is about whether strong early-season form can be turned into something firmer and more consequential. A contending week in Hainan would not simply revive memories of past victories on Asian soil; it would push him into the broader season’s meaningful conversations again.
His game, at its best, has never relied on theatre. It is built on control, restraint and the quiet suffocation of mistakes. That can be less flashy than modern golf often prefers, but it remains brutally effective when the course demands discipline and the wind starts fiddling with everybody’s plans.
Mission Hills Haikou may prove a useful stage for exactly that kind of golf. And if Francesco Molinari does make another run in China this week, it will not feel like an old story being dusted off. It will feel like a proper player, on a proper course, noticing that opportunity still has not gone anywhere.
