Nick Faldo has been married three times and been divorced three times (often on the grounds of his adultery) yet he still went on to be knighted. Admittedly he was never as high profile as Tiger, nonetheless he was and is (through his TV work) a well known figure in the golfing world. So his private life has been far more complicated than Tiger’s and although he has taken loads of stick from the media over the years, his private life tended to stay private in media terms. So what’s the difference ? Well as one wit so succinctly put it:

Fifty years ago, 100 white men chasing one black man across a field was called the Ku Klux Klan — today it’s called the PGA Tour.

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Nick Faldo is not everyone’s cup of tea but you have to say he is the best golfer Britain has ever produced and when you watch some of the shots he’s played under pressure then you know there will probably not be a British golfer like him any time soon.

Posted via web from kellsborojack’s posterous

You’ve got to love Monty. Only the other day he was slagging off Nick Faldo’s style of Captaincy (no drummers etc. DJ Spoony, a hint of racism there and so on) and now he wants Faldo to speak to the team any time. You have to wish that Monty would say the second thing that comes into his head, not the first.

This is a big two fingers to all his detractors especially the players of his era such as James and Feherty who always slagged him off. What did they ever do ?

It was obvious that Faldo would get loads of stick after we lost the Ryder Cup. All the hacks were quick to concentrate on the singles order Faldo used and to blame this on the defeat. As this article succinctly points out, our so called top guns performed poorly all weekend and there was no compelling evidence before (or after) the tops guns were going to win us the Cup.

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There are still elements in the British media who don’t like Faldo. Ever since his infamous “heart of my bottom” speech after the 1992 Open, when he compounded his fractious relationship with the media, they’ve been waiting for him to fail: this may be their chance. As Colin Montgomerie has said, Faldo is in a difficult position due to the continued success of the European team. If he wins, they’ll say he didn’t have to do much and if he loses, then it’ll be because of his leadership style and the picks he made. All I can say is Jack Nicklaus took it on the chin when the USA lost to Europe at Muirfield Village in 1987 and I’m sure if Europe lose this time, then Faldo will do the same.

You can never say never though but I’m confident Europe has got a good enough team to win again and win well.

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Even though he’s not got much chance of winning the Open, it’s shame he’s going to break his run just because of the Ryder Cup.

Tags: Golf, Faldo