Faldo Gabs: Neurotic Ryder Cuppers, Rory's Near Catastrophe And Luke Donald's Major Prep
/Nick Faldo had all sorts of fun stuff to talk about with James Corrigan for a lengthy Telegraph story to promote the re-release of his 1995 instruction book.
On the 2008 Ryder Cup:
“When Sergio [Garcia] says to me after the first day, ‘Excuse me ladies, I’m f----- , I don’t want to play any more,’ that’s a belter for a captain. ‘Uh, you’re one of my main guys and you don’t want to play? Terrific, great, thanks’. How do you deal with that one?
"Then I had [Padraig] Harrington exhausted and [Lee] [Westwood, who was in a different place. They were my top three players and gave me 1½ points. It’s pretty tough to do anything with that. That’s the fact, but as a captain you get walloped with other stuff.”
Hey, at least he got everyone's name right!
And this on Rory's late arrival this year at Medinah, aided by a local police officer.
“Talk about lucky. Imagine if Rory [McIlroy] hadn’t made it to the first tee in the singles, if that police car he had to jump into hadn’t been there. It turned into a joke when he got there with 10 minutes to go, but if he hadn’t and everything had have unfolded the way it did, Rory would have cost Europe the Ryder Cup.
"Just think of the outcry. Rory would have been scarred for life and the finger would also have been pointed at the leadership and organisation. The whole thing would have been a disaster.”
And maybe most interesting of all was the input he gave Luke Donald and his sense that the World No. 2 isn't preparing for majors properly.
“Luke came to me in the summer. He’d been torturing himself with his schedule and basically I told him to spend more time at the major venues. Did Luke do as I advised? No, he did he opposite. It was so funny,” said Faldo, with a laugh.