Nick Faldo - Tournament Career

Tournament Career

Faldo was born in Welwyn Garden City, England. He borrowed some clubs from his neighbours after watching Jack Nicklaus play the 1971 Masters on television. While working as a carpet fitter, Faldo won the English Amateur and the British Youths Championship in 1975. After playing on the University of Houston golf team for a year, Faldo turned professional in 1976. He achieved instant success, finishing 8th on the European Tour Order of Merit in 1977 and 3rd in 1978, winning a European Tour event in each of those seasons. In the former year, he became the youngest player to appear in the Ryder Cup at the age of 21. One of the leading players on the European Tour in the early 1980s, he topped the Order of Merit in 1983.

Feeling he needed to refine his game in order to become a regular contender in major championships, (British tabloids dubbed him "Nick Foldo" after collapses at the 1983 Open Championship and the 1984 Masters), he spent the mid-1980s remodelling his swing under the tutelage of David Leadbetter. His performances dropped off for a couple of years as the changes occurred, but by 1987 he was playing at an even higher level, and he claimed his first major title at that year's Open Championship at Muirfield. He beat American Paul Azinger by one stroke, having parred every hole in his final round. Azinger held the lead for a time, but bogeyed the last two holes.

In the 1988 U.S. Open, Faldo lost an 18-hole Monday playoff to Curtis Strange by four strokes. Strange shot an even-par round of 71, while Faldo struggled with a round of 75. It was the closest that a British player had come to winning the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin's victory in 1970.

Faldo won two consecutive Masters Tournament's in 1989 and 1990, becoming the first player to win back-to-back Masters titles since Jack Nicklaus in 1965-66. At the 1989 Masters, Faldo shot a final round of 65, the low round of the tournament, to get into a playoff with Scott Hoch. Faldo won the playoff after holing a somewhat lengthy putt on the 2nd playoff hole (Hoch had missed a 2-foot putt to win on the first playoff hole). At the 1990 Masters, Faldo came from behind again to get into a playoff with Raymond Floyd, once again winning on the second playoff hole after Floyd pulled his approach shot into a pond left of the green.

In the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club, Faldo finished tied for 3rd place. He had a lipped-out putt on the 72nd hole which resulted in him missing out by one stroke on an 18-hole playoff with Hale Irwin and Mike Donald. The following month, Faldo won his second Open Championship in 1990 at St Andrews, Scotland, by five shots, becoming the first golfer since Tom Watson in 1982 to win two majors in the same year.

Faldo won the famous Claret Jug trophy for a third time in the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield. Faldo's first two rounds of 66-64 for a 36-hole total of 130 broke the Open Championship record for the lowest first 36 holes. He had a 54-hole lead of four shots, before losing the lead during the back-nine of the final round to American John Cook. Faldo recovered with birdies on two of the last four holes to win by a stroke over Cook, who bogeyed the 72nd hole.

Perceived by some golf fans to be an aloof stoic character in the mould of Ben Hogan, Faldo displayed visible emotion after his winning putt on the 72nd hole at Muirfield in 1992, trembling and shedding tears. Faldo later said: "I thought I'd blown it. If I had lost, I would have needed a very large plaster to patch that one up."

In the early 1990s, Faldo was considered the best golfer in the world. He won more of the four professional major tournaments (Faldo won six) than any other player in the world from 1987 through 1996. (Nick Price was second with three major victories during this period; Seve Ballesteros, a contemporary of Faldo's from Spain, won five majors from 1979 to 1988).

Faldo spent a total of 98 weeks altogether at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking, and claimed the European Tour Order of Merit a second time in 1992. During that time, Faldo said of his success: "The run doesn't have to end. If someone is going to beat me then I'm going to make sure they've worked for their victory. Let them come and get it from me." That year, he had worldwide earnings of £1,558,978, breaking the existing record.

Throughout this time, Faldo remained a European Tour player while also visiting America regularly and playing events around the world, but in 1995 he decided to concentrate on playing on the PGA Tour, as his priority was to win further major championships (and three out of the four majors are played in the United States). At first this strategy didn't seem to work, as he had a moderate 1995 season and start to the 1996 season, but he won a famous victory at Augusta to collect his sixth and final major championship.

Faldo went into the final round at the 1996 Masters trailing Greg Norman by six shots, but was the beneficiary of an infamous Sunday collapse at Augusta by Norman; Faldo shot a 67 to win by five over Norman, who struggled mightily en route to a 78. Though this is commonly remembered as the tournament Norman threw away, Faldo's 67 was a memorable display of concentration and consistency which put pressure on Norman. After Faldo finished, he hugged Norman and whispered something in his ear, which years later Norman confirmed to have included the line "Don't let the bastards get you down," a reference to the media, which Faldo assumed would aggressively hound Norman for the loss. Norman said in interview after defeat that "He (Faldo) had gone way, way up in my estimations." Since then they have become friends and fishing partners, a passion they both share.

Faldo was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year in 1990 and the European Tour Player of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1992, and has won 29 European Tour titles. As Faldo entered his forties, his form gradually declined and he devoted more time to off-course activities. The last season that he played regularly on the PGA Tour was 2001. Afterwards, he refocused on the European Tour, but has consistently played less than a full schedule. His most recent top-10 finish in a major to date (and quite probably the final of his career) was a tie for eighth place at the 2003 Open Championship. As of July 2005, his career European Tour earnings are just under €8 million, and his PGA Tour earnings are over $5 million.

Faldo is also the most successful Ryder Cup player ever, having won the most points of any player on either team and having represented the European Team a record 11 times and played a key role in making Europe competitive in the event. Having won 23 of his matches, lost 19, and halved 4, he also holds the record for having played the most Ryder Cup matches. He also holds the record for the most points won by any player 25 and is one of only six players to have scored a hole-in-one in the Ryder Cup.

While Faldo's professional individual tournament wins (39) pale in quantity to that of contemporaries Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, and Bernhard Langer, the prestige and stature of his successes are impressive, and he has more major victories than any of these players. His CV boasts (often multiple) successes in high-profile tour events such as the French Open, Irish Open, Spanish Open, Swiss Open (now European Masters), the European PGA, the British Masters, the European Open, the Johnnie Walker Classic, and the Volvo Masters, as well as his Nissan Open, Doral Open, and Heritage successes in the US. These wins are not only supplemented by his six majors, but also by his wins in invitational events such as the Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge, the Johnnie Walker World Golf Championship, and the World Matchplay, as well as his team successes in the Dunhill Cup, the World Cup of Golf, and of course the Ryder Cup.

In the first half of 2007, Faldo did not appear in any regular tour events. He did play in the 2007 British Open, missing the cut. In his first Champions Tour event, he finished tied for 14th in the Senior British Open.

On Tuesday 20 May 2008, Faldo confirmed that he would not take part in the 2008 Open at Birkdale. It was the first time he had not taken part in the competition since failing to qualify as an amateur in 1975. He entered in 2009 at Turnberry and 2010 at St Andrews, but missed the 36-hole cut at both.