Faldo eyes one more Open shot
Return brings back memories of caustic ending to ’92 victory
GULLANE, East Lothian It’s been 21 years since Nick Faldo sarcastically thanked the golf writers after winning his third British Open, his second at Muirfield, and neither side in what was then a simmering feud has forgotten.
Now 56 years old, having reinvented himself — from the prickly, self-centered obsessive he was as a champion golfer to Sir Nick Faldo, the golf ambassador and flippant deliverer of caustic TV commentary and humorous asides — Faldo is returning to the happiest place in his golf history to play what may be his last Open Championship.
When last glimpsed around the 18th green at Muirfield, Faldo’s acceptance of the Claret Jug in 1992 was memorable for its caustic postscript.
“After you won, I remember that you thanked the press from the heart of your rear ...,” a reporter ventured Monday, when the six-time major winner sat down for a pre-championship interview session. “No, I didn’t,” Faldo said. “Heart of my bottom.”
“Same thing,” the reporter said.
“No, it’s not. Heart of my bottom, get the right words.”
“Do you regret saying that?”
“I showed my little daughter, my Emma is still starting to learn what daddy did. And we went on YouTube and pulled it up. And I actually start with, ‘I want to thank the press from the bottom of my heart — no, the heart of my bottom.’ It was all in jest. It was actually quite good.”
“What was going on that week that made you ...?”
“It wasn’t that week. I had a long haul through ’91. I won two Majors in ’ 90. By ’91, they had said Faldo is finished. So I promptly won the tournament, so that was quite useful. Then, you know, Ryder Cup was hard work. I did a minirebuild through the winter of ’91. It came out pretty good, and then won, but meanwhile ... nobody knows what you’re doing off the golf course, practising. So that was all it really was, yeah.”
Faldo said he hasn’t played a competitive round in three years, and only played about 35 times total, in the last two.
“About two months ago I was at my gym at home, and I thought at the time, you’re just strong enough to have a go,” he said. “It might be the last chance I get to walk with fellow Open champions. And so I kind of said, ‘ OK, I’m going to go for it.’”
He has been working with his old physio at rehabbing a chronic shoulder problem, and with Justin Rose’s sports psychologist.
“The bottom line, I hope that for the end of the week I’m inspired, like all of us; that I want to play again and have another go here. I think that’s really what’s in mind,” he said.
‘I’m trying to bust my buns and get to know this golf course, because it’s like a main road out there; it’s hard and fast.’ NICK FALDO Veteran British golfer, on practising at Muirfield for the 142nd British Open
As for realistic expectations ... “When you’ve come and see the test that they’ve prepared for you, I think, you know, you start grand ideas of survival: how close to the cut could I get?
“I’m trying to bust my buns and get to know this golf course, because it’s like a main road out there; it’s hard and fast.”
He’s paired Thursday and Friday with Tom Watson and Fred Couples, but doesn’t have any illusions about scaring victory the way Watson did at age 59 at Turnberry.
“That could have been, arguably, the greatest sporting achievement of all time. I would be scarred from that if I had a putt to win The Open at 59.
“And Tom is a very strong man. He probably won’t really let on, but that would scar me, that. So I’m going to avoid having a putt to win,” Faldo said, drawing a round of laughter.
“So I’m either going to win by six or be stuck in the hay somewhere.”