Faldo Fights Back: Sergio "Wasn't In It" And Cites Examples

An unbylined AP story features Nick Faldo's side of the story after his Golf Channel comments were fed to Team Europe and spit back with venom. Though Faldo admits his assessement was "harsh" he does not back down in one of those only-the-Ryder-Cup-can-produce-soap-operas.

And I have to say, Faldo's suggestion that Garcia was moping and erratic that week in 2008 doesn't sound like fiction. I believe the record does back up Faldo's assertion that Garcia was depressed after breaking up with Morgan Leigh Norman and he wasn't the Sergio "we know now."

“He was always labeled as the man who brings emotion and passion. We didn’t have it that week,” Faldo told the AP. “That’s, in my opinion, how it looked and felt.”

Faldo said Garcia was “down in the dumps” after Morgan Leigh Norman, the daughter of Greg Norman, had broken up with him.

“Friday morning, I’m going up the 10th hole with him,” he said. “I just put my arm around him and said, ‘Are you good to go this afternoon?’ And he said, ‘Yes’ to me. Then I get him on the 18th green and he says, ‘I’m (expletive). I don’t want to play anymore. I’ve been on antibiotics.’ I told him he was on the tee in 30 minutes.”

The pairings are submitted for the afternoon before the morning matches are over.

“That was the tone of Sergio for the whole week,” Faldo said. “He wasn’t in it.”

Now does that sound like the Sergio we know? Oh, right, it does.

Since Sergio isn't playing the morning fourballs, I think he ought to come up in the booth and hash this out with Faldo.