Nick Faldo will play in British Open at Turnberry

Last year, Greg Norman delivered a performance fit for a Disney movie at the British Open. Call it Back Nine, in which an aging former champion puts together four improbable rounds to compete for the game's oldest trophy. This year, Nick Faldo may be reprising the role.

Faldo, a three-time Open champion and current CBS broadcaster, will play at Turnberry in July, according to BBC Sport.

The 51-year-old six-time major champion missed last year's Open for the first time since 1975 as he was focused on the Ryder Cup captaincy.

He also turned down a Masters return in April because of television commentary commitments, but will be competing at Turnberry for the fourth time.

Faldo won the last of his three Opens at Muirfield in 1992.

The former world number one, who no longer competes regularly on tour, also won at Muirfield in 1987 and triumphed at St Andrews in 1990.

Faldo won't have any announcing duties that week because ABC/ESPN broadcasts the Open.

Faldo: Match Play smart choice for Tiger's return

Pacific Palisades, Calif. — Before Tiger Woods announced that he would resurface in earnest at this week’s Accenture Match Play Championship, many suggested that the win-or-go-home event was an illogical choice for Woods’s return. A first-round loss, after all, would send Woods packing after 18 measly holes, or even fewer. Not much of a tune-up.

Nick Faldo says that thinking is daft.

“Picking the Match Play was a really smart move,” Faldo said Sunday evening after calling the action for CBS at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. “There’s no scorecard in your hand.”

Faldo said the match-play format will allow Woods to get away with a few loose swings—or holes—and still advance, while simultaneously keeping him engaged should he struggle to find his form. “Match play keeps you really switched on,” Faldo said. “Because it doesn’t matter where you are, you could be thinking, ‘I could still hole this 30-yard chip shot.’ ”

Woods has something else going for him, Faldo said: the immense pressure that will burden his competitors, beginning with his first-round foe, Brendan Jones of Australia. “Can you imagine the media attention on every single match?” Faldo said. “Guys are going to be in his opponents’ ears the night before. Then they’ll arrive at the tee, and the world will be watching. Good luck.”

Faldo said he had heard that Woods’s recent forays onto the course had been intensely scrutinized by a trainer to ensure that Woods's left leg is sound. “I’ve heard he goes on the course with his swing coach, Hank Haney, and the trainer and hits one shot and the guy says, ‘No, that muscle’s not supporting this,’ and so it’s right back to the gym,” Faldo said. 

“He’s the $6 billion man—and change,” Faldo added. “I think he wants to come back and scare everybody. It won’t shock me if he wins.”

Forget the Big Four, Meet the Big Six

The emergence of young players like Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas amounts to a sea change at the top of the PGA Tour, according to Nick Faldo, and one that’s good for the game. Gone are longtime top-of-the-food-chain guys like Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Instead, Kim, Villegas and Sergio Garcia are now the face of golf — along with veterans Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh.

"Tiger being out, we've had Phil and we've got Camilo Villegas and we've got Sergio and still got Vijay in there, and Anthony Kim there maybe bubbling under,” Faldo said at the USB Hong Kong Open. “So it's kind of a change at the top, the leading players, so that's exciting. And they are all good characters, as well, so that's really good for television.”

I’d give  Villegas’s spot to Padraig Harrington, but Faldo is right on the money. Woods’s absence has been terrible for TV ratings, but it energized the Tour’s younger generation, who got more time in the sun this summer as the World No. 1 recovered from knee surgery. Now you get the sense that guys are hungry to take on Woods. For all the talk about the economy’s effect on the PGA Tour, including players' possibly having to rent cars at tournaments (OMG!!!), 2009 could be the most entertaining PGA Tour season we’ve seen in a while.

I Pick Winners; I Don't Say When

I must have bumped my head on a log and gone back in time.

How else to explain it? I opened GOLF.com this morning and …. whaaa? John Cook? Helen Alfredsson? Tell me I haven’t been wormholed back to the early nineties.

John Cook, you see, was the American with blonde bangs who nearly stole the 1992 British Open from Nick Faldo. (See my contemporaneous account in the SI Vault.) Helen Alfredsson was the Swedish siren who won the 1993 Kraft Nabisco Championship, leading us to believe she was going to be the next Annika Sorenstam, before we had even heard of Annika Sorenstam.

I was high on both of them. If you had put me on a straight-backed chair under a bright light, I would have told you that Cook and Alfredsson would win a half-dozen majors between them. I saw Cook hang with Faldo at Muirfield, manufacturing shots as if he had been born on a links. I was so impressed that I made him my default pick to win every major for the rest of the decade. (A newspaper once printed that I had picked Cook to win the U.S. Open, failing to notice – as had I -- that Cook was not in the field.)

Alfredsson? She was such a firecracker that I spent the weekend of the 1993 U.S. Women’s Open at Crooked Stick believing that her second major win of the season might land her on the cover of Sports Illustrated. But alas, Helen faded on Sunday and finished a stroke behind a very surprised Lauri Merten. (Although not as surprised as I was; my slightly-bent Crooked Stick story is also in the Vault.)

Well, I was right about Tiger Woods. And if this is, indeed, 2008, and if Cook, 51, has just won his second Champions Tour event, and if Alfredsson, 43, has just won her second LPGA tournament of the year, there may still be hope for an old golf writer.

So I’m picking John Cook to win the 2009 Masters and Helen Alfredsson to win the 2009 Kraft Nabisco Championship.

It’s all about perseverance.

 

Thursday was just what Faldo ordered

Nick Faldo must have been all smiles today at lunch.

Paul Casey, competing this week in the Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club, was safely in the clubhouse after shooting an opening-round 65. The Englishman needs to play well over the next two weeks to earn spot on Faldo's Ryder Cup team.

Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Justin Rose, who is also on the bubble to make the Ryder Cup team, shot 67 to finish the first day of the KLM Open tied for fifth. Darren Clarke, who is trying to impress Faldo and earn a captain's pick, shot 68.

Don't look now, but the European stars that Faldo wants on his squad are starting to get hot. 

Padraig Harrington has won two majors in two months, and Sergio Garcia is playing well again. Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jimenez may have missed the cut at the PGA Championship, but you know both will be ready to go at Valhalla. If Casey, Clarke and Rose continue to round into form, Faldo will be grinning from ear to ear.

(Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Four captain's picks are an advantage for Azinger

Paul Azinger is facing some tough decisions over the next two weeks. As the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, he has to pick four players on Sept. 2 to join the eight automatic qualifiers. Hard as that selection process might be, I'd bet that Azinger is happy he changed the rules this year. (Previous captains had only two picks, and they made them the Monday after the PGA Championship.)

The new process gives Azinger two advantages over his predecessors. First, there's now a better chance that at least one player Azinger selects will be on a hot streak when the Cup matches begin. Both teams want the guys who are playing their best just before the Ryder Cup, but the five-week period between the PGA and the Ryder Cup is plenty of time to lose an edge. The new timing reduces the risk of having a team member in a slump.

Second, Azinger can do more to influence team chemistry. The team has three rookies (Anthony Kim, Boo Weekley and Ben Curtis) and five veterans (Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry, Justin Leonard and Stewart Cink). With four picks at his disposal, Azinger can add more youth, more experience or both. He can use his picks to complement his eight automatic selections instead of just filling out his roster. What captain wouldn't want that type of versatility?

Of course, if players like Steve Stricker, Woody Austin, Hunter Mahan and Sean O'Hair pull a disappearing act over the next three weeks, then having two or four selections won't really matter. Still, I bet Nick Faldo would be sleeping a lot better right now if he was sitting on four picks instead of two. Going into this week, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie are all on the outside of the European Ryder Cup bubble.

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Pressure Mounts for Euros and Faldo

Members of the media are supposed to be neutral when it comes to who wins and who loses. Our job is to call it like we see it.

But Nick Faldo, Europe's Ryder Cup captain who will be sitting in the CBS tower behind the 18th green this week, will surely be pulling for the stars from across the pond.

Ten of Faldo's Ryder Cup players will be chosen automatically. The five highest-ranked players on the World Ryder Cup Points list (which is based on world ranking) make the team, along with the five highest-ranked players on the European Ryder Cup Points list (which is based on European Tour earnings) not already on the team.

On the eve of the PGA Championship, here are the players Faldo would automatically have on his roster:
1    Lee Westwood
2    Padraig Harrington
3    Henrik Stenson
4    Miguel Angel Jimenez
5    Robert Karlsson
6    Graeme McDowell
7    Oliver Wilson
8    Søren Hansen
9    Martin Kaymer
10  Justin Rose

Faldo gets two captain's picks, but he surely never imagined that he'd need to use one to get Sergio Garcia (the sixth-ranked player in the world) on the squad. Garcia is currently sixth on the World Points list. Ian Poulter, who was the runner-up at this year's British Open, is seventh.

After finishing tied for sixth at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational last week, Darren Clarke (10-7-3 in five Ryder Cups) moved up 10 spots on the European Points list to No. 23. Paul Casey (3-1-2 in two Ryder Cups) went from No. 19 to No. 15 after finishing tied for eighth in Akron, but both he and Clarke need strong showings if they want to play at Valhalla in September.

In May, Faldo said that Colin Montgomerie needed a strong finish this season to make the team. "It all depends where he is in that last six weeks," he said. "That is going to be real key for me."

Montgomerie finished tied for 58th at Royal Birkdale and is No. 16 on the European Points list, but Monty could still play his way onto his ninth Ryder Cup team with a strong showing at Oakland Hills.

No European-born player has won the PGA Championship since Tommy Armour defeated Gene Sarazen in  1930. It would be a dream come true for any European player who won, and for Faldo, sitting behind the 18th green, it could make some tough decisions a whole lot easier.

(Photo by Gary Bogdon/SI)

Are the Euros Planning a Recon Trip to Valhalla?

Sergio Garcia may have inadvertently divulged a bit of Nick Faldo's pre-Ryder Cup strategy Thursday.

After the Spaniard shot an opening-round 69 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, Garcia was asked what he planned to do during the off-week after the BMW Championship in St. Louis and the start of Ryder Cup week September 15 in Louisville.

"I think Nick Faldo, the captain, told us that they were thinking about going two days, maybe Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, to play Valhalla. So if I'm in it, I'll probably go maybe at least for one day."

But that was news to Padraig Harrington, who cemented his spot on the European Ryder Cup team by winning his second-straight British Open title two weeks ago.

"Never heard anything about it," he said. "I might be at the German Masters, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see on that."

The Mercedes-Benz Championship in Cologne, Germany, is scheduled from September 11-14. Because players will need to be both mentally and physically rested before the Ryder Cup, don't look for Harrington—or any other European Ryder Cup player—to over-commit before heading to Valhalla.

(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

History won't help Monty make Faldo's Ryder Cup team

Euro Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo said Tuesday that he expects Colin Montgomerie to be in the running when he selects his two captain’s picks for the team later this summer, but if I were Monty I wouldn’t buy those plane tickets to Kentucky just yet.

Sure, Faldo probably does expect Monty to play better—the Scotsman has dropped to 90th in the world ranking—but his press conference Tuesday was more notable for what Faldo didn’t say than what he did.

Faldo said it was still early in the season and the key period to determine whether Montgomerie would gain one of the two wild-card selections would be the six weeks immediately after the British Open, to be held at Royal Birkdale in mid-July.

"It all depends where he is in that last six weeks (before the team is decided)," said Faldo, who was speaking ahead of the PGA Championship at Wentworth which starts on Thursday. "That is going to be real key for me."

What Faldo didn’t say is that Monty has earned a captain's pick by being one of the best Ryder Cup players ever (unbeaten in singles, 20-9-7 overall). That remains the best, and maybe the only, reason for picking him this year. The relationship between the two men has been chilly in the past, with Faldo saying Monty skipped team meetings last year at the Seve Cup. Faldo’s remarks Tuesday appear to be an attempt to mend fences, but you can expect him to captain the Ryder Cup team the way he played: driven to win without regard for pleasantries.

In December, Monty also played nice, saying that he intended to earn his way on the team. I asked him directly if he felt he had earned a captain’s pick with his play in past Ryder Cups. He deflected the question, but I got the distinct feeling he was holding his tongue.

Will Faldo pick Monty? Cue the Ryder Cup drama

At Colin Montgomerie’s wedding last weekend, a story surfaced about the day Monty asked his bride-to-be, Gaynor Knowles, if she’d like to attend the Ryder Cup. “This Ryder Cup,” replied Knowles, who reportedly didn’t know Monty was a golfer when the two first met. “Is it a big thing?”

Cute story. But the hard truth facing Sir Monty, the most dominant Ryder Cupper of his era, is much grimmer. Winless since last July and with just two top 10s in 2008, Monty has slipped to 30th on the European Ryder Cup Points List and 47th on the European Ryder Cup World Points List (the top five from each ranking get automatic bids).

If Monty’s listless play continues, he will leave European captain Nick Faldo in a pickle: select the slumping, aging Montgomerie as one his two captain’s picks or pass on a guy who in eight straight Ryder Cup appearances is 20-9-7 with a sparkling 6-0-2 singles record.

There are a couple other delicious dynamics at work here:

First, with 23.5 career Ryder Cup points, Monty is just 1.5 points behind the all-time mark of—wait for it—Capt. Faldo. Which means if Faldo wants to preserve his record (and we can assume this is Monty’s last realistic shot at making the team as a player), Faldo’s in position to do just that.

Second, Monty and Faldo have had their moments, most recently at last fall’s Seve Trophy, where Faldo captained the Great Britain and Ireland squad. “Monty’s a tough one,” Faldo told the London Times. “He was the only one whose emotions I had to deal with. He only came to two of the five team meetings, so that was disappointing.

"Then he had to be teased out on to the 18th green to support his team. The bottom line was he hadn’t won a point."

Whatever happens, the pending episode promises more drama than a David Caruso cameo on Desperate Housewives. Monty and Faldo are both prickly, iron-willed egoists who are quick to speak their minds—and you can bet they will as Faldo prepares to announce his picks on Aug. 31.

Cue the fireworks.

(Photo: Kieran Dodds/AFP/Getty Images)