THE GOLF CHANNEL MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 4, 2002

Nick Faldo

DAN HIGGINS: Good afternoon to everybody participating and thanks a lot for joining us.

As you know, the Golf Channel recently added a great cast to it's on-air team, including Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez, Peter Jacobsen and Mark Rolfing, but headlining that cast is Nick Faldo who has been gracious enough to join us today to talk about his new relationship with the Golf Channel serve as a player analyst and will provide commentary on Golf Central, Viewer's Forum and the Web site, thegolfchannel.com. He is also going to share his thoughts about a career in television, as a three-time champion will give us his take on what we can expect during next week's Masters Tournament, and what he has in store for the Golf Channel during that week.

Nick has decided that he just wants to go ahead and open it up for Q&A. So without further adieu, I'll just invite Nick to hop on line and we'll go ahead and take some questions.

Q. Everybody's curious with the Masters, Augusta having all the changes, just your thoughts on that, on the changes to the course?

NICK FALDO: Well, at the moment, I'm speculating like a lot of guys. Only a few have been out there to see it. We've all seen the pictures. We've seen the new yardages.

You know, I think that's really it. We're going to wait and see. I'll go up there Sunday, probably play there Sunday afternoon for the first time. Obviously, there are a couple of holes that I've got a concern. There's 1, is significantly lengthened, especially as you've got to get it to the top of the hill, to get it over the hill, up by the bunker. And obviously we've heard 18 has been significantly lengthened. 7 may be a driver now off the tee, or if not -- or it will be a longer second shot there.

The big question is if -- and 13, I believe has changed a lot. I mean, 13 was one of the greatest two-shot par 5s ever, and now it could quite possibly be a three-shotter. So, we shall see. At the moment, it's all up in the air.

Q. In general, in principle, do you think it was something that was required, a lengthening?

NICK FALDO: Well, again, until I see it -- unfortunately, you know technology has advanced way quicker than everybody ever anticipated. It wasn't like, you know, 15 years. But in the last five, seven years, it's made an explosion, hasn't it. The golf ball has gone further, the drivers, the shafts, computer technology, the launch monitors, all these sort of things. The golfer is better, as well. He's better equipped.

But I will be doing -- I will be wired up for my first thoughts on Sunday when I play, and you can tune into the Golf Channel and hear what I've got to say.

Q. What percentage of your time will you spend playing and what percentage of time will you devote to your other interests?

NICK FALDO: Well, you know, I'm in a very interesting, call it a transition, stage in my career, where I have learned, obviously in the last year, I have a great opportunity with the Faldo name to embark on branding and marketing exercises. And I'm close to 45 now; it's something I've got to do. If I left it for another five years, you know, I could be forgotten in the public domain.

But I'm still playing, and right now, the best place for me to be is out on the golf course. I've put together a new marketing team and business team, and surrounding myself with some new business friends, business partners. You know, as I said, still the best place for me is on the golf course, and I next year will still play pretty much a worldwide schedule. I'm sure it will be up pretty close to 20 events next year worldwide.

Q. Do you have a swing instructor now or are you going on your own?

NICK FALDO: Well, I've been talking this week, I've been here, the Faldo Institute here and Chip has been helping me on a few little things he spotted. Fanny keeps an eye on me, obviously, when I'm on friend, and my friend Shellen Harger (ph), Swedish sports psychologist of golf pros, he understands the swing as well, so I've got enough people keeping their eyes on me. I think I'm all right.

Q. Congratulations, if that's the right word, on joining the media. I was wondering if you were at all disappointed in the Masters's decision to basically disinvite -- inaudible --Billy Casper, Doug Ford, and if you were at all put off by kind of the cold bloodedness of essentially repealing a lifetime exemption?

NICK FALDO: I had not heard of that. That's always news, to get news.

Q. They sent them a letter in the mail, I guess last spring, telling them that their play had not been up to snuff, and they were welcome to come for the dinner on Tuesday night and the Par-3 Contest and all of the other handshaking and back slapping that goes on up there, but "please don't play."

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I'm sure that comes as a bit of a shock, yeah. Not a very nice feeling. But I think the public would love to see the past champions; that's what so wonderful about Augusta. And whether they have a -- maybe we could have had something in between, between the 1st Tee Ceremony for the very old gentlemen, and then the next notch down, maybe they could play with -- I'm sure they would be more than happy to go off early together as friends, not part of the tournament, but as fans' entertainment there.

But then there's a line between, hey, this is a very serious golf tournament and this is an expedition. I'm sure it was a very difficult decision to make.

Q. I wanted to ask you, just off the top of your head, who do the changes of the Masters help and who do they maybe hurt going in?

NICK FALDO: Well, as we said, we believe that if it's going to get a lot longer, and as I said a couple of holes where you need to get to the top of the hill. Obviously, you have 1 and obviously like 5 -- well, obviously, the drivers become much more of a key. Before you could free-wheel it at Augusta, and sure, it made your second shot a little bit more difficult. But with the fact the golf course going so far and the clubs, if you're out of position with an 8-iron or a 9-iron in your hand, it doesn't matter because you're trying to land it on a dinner plate, where you are able to. There's a big difference when you're hitting a 4-iron into a green and you need -- you then need the strategy of playing the hole how it was made, designed.

So, he obviously it's going to make -- in theory, it's going to make the longer hitters to have had advantage to get over the hills, to get to the top of the hills and they will have easier second shots. If you are back playing on an uphill lie playing two or three clubs more than we have done in the past into the same pin positions, that's the major thing. I mean, if they had fantastic pin positions, there are only three or four yards away from a bunker and they are one or two yards from a ridge; if you have a 9-iron in your hand you've got half a chance of getting it to the right area, but if you've got a 4-iron or whatever in your hand, the margin of accuracy, they are really going to test it. As I say, again, we will see. We will see what happens when we get there.

Q. Johnny Miller, people say, maybe he's too critical as an analyst and Ken Venturi not critical enough. I know you are not doing the same thing they are doing, but how do you see yourself as an analyst for the Golf Channel, and will you second guess guys and what's your role for the viewers?

NICK FALDO: One of the things I wanted to try and do was get -- one was, of course, between the ropes, just outside for the players and just inside for the public and try and give a different view of being there and seeing what's going on in the player's eyes, and whether he likes the situation or doesn't like the situation, then you comment on it.

I'm not at the moment sitting in the commentary booth. I wanted to be more -- a little bit freer to have my own views and have my own sort of thoughts and feelings on what's going on I've got a couple of things I'm going to do, Viewer's Forum; so once a month, I'll just pick my own topics and discuss those.

Again, in two weeks, there will be a Web site and again it will be my comments on that. The majors will obviously be much more on who is playing well and who is not and who this course is good for who it isn't and that sort of thing.

And then the British Open's fun. I'm going to be doing the Playing Lesson Show. We obviously are going to play some key holes at Muirfield again, and hopefully the wind is blowing and we'll have to play a variety of shots. That's going to keep me busy.

Q. Phil Mickelson at THE PLAYERS Championship, a big deal was made about how Phil said that he's committed to his aggressive style, and that's what makes the game fun for him. He thinks that style can win majors, but to him it's more important to have fun than win majors. I'm curious your reaction to that and can he win with his style in the majors?

NICK FALDO: If Phil is happy the way Phil is playing, well, that's exactly how he should do it. He's his own boss and he should go and play exactly the way he wants to play. Whether , I mean, you make that decision and that's if you want to play aggressive, if you're confident, you go for it. That's the bottom line to it. Sure, you know, if you are going for it with some of these pin positions next to lakes and whatever and fall short, or it doesn't happen, you know, Nicklaus was, obviously, played a little bit more the percentages, but that's Phil's style. Good luck to him.

I think he will work it out. I think he's having a tough time. The way he played at the PGA last year was fantastic, and he didn't lose is; he was beaten by David Toms and yet the media are all over him. Yeah, I think he will get there. I think everybody knows that. He will get there.

Q. What's your opinion on the new tour for major champions?

NICK FALDO: Well, I guess you've got your pros and your negatives, haven't you.

Speaking the pros for it, it's exactly what the public would love to see. I mean, to have 24, or whatever the size would be of the field would be of the past major champions, you are obviously going to get an awful lot of good names of players, like myself, who are now early 40s, some a little more, some a little less, yet still great names in the world of golf and the public would love to see us going head-to-head. The whole event to be -- wouldn't be quite the same. It would still be very, very competitive, I'm sure, and the guys would like that. But it definitely would have a bit more of entertainment to it and a bit more fun to it. So you've got that side.

But the negative is the damage you would do to the main tour, the Senior Tour. I guess it's almost like it must be a good idea because Tim Finchem doesn't like idea, so it must be a good idea. (Laughs).

Q. What kind of advice have you been getting as you step out being a broadcaster?

NICK FALDO: Oh, I haven't stepped out yet. I'm still -- still enwrapped, double-wrapped.

No, I'm going to take it seriously. I would -- I've there's quite a few guys out there I admire, and I think they do a great job, and the best way to learn is to spend some time with them. I think that's what I'm going to try and do and build on this. P.

You know, I'm not going to be an expert overnight. I think it will be a little rough over the edges, for a while but I think that might be kind of fun. I'll see if I can learn the trade, see if I like it. See if I enjoy doing this sort of thing.

Q. Is there anything you don't want to do; you want to avoid doing while you're on the air?

NICK FALDO: Avoid doing while I'm on the air? I think most obvious is forgetting that you were a player and then become a TV booth analyst, as if every shot you had, you never miss-hit a shot in your life. And I'm sure we've all missed greens with a wedge and do all sorts of stupid things, and to sit in commentary tower and comment on the obvious.

Q. Are you still as motivated to play the majors as you were, say, ten years ago, or does this foray into television indicate that it is time to move on to greener pastures?

NICK FALDO: I'm still golfing. The Masters, I'm just doing a little -- I'm just wired up to play a few holes at the beginning of the week and I'm doing a Wednesday, an hour on the Viewer's Forum and that's it.

So I'm still -- I have nothing else during the tournament. So I'm still heading down and playing golf during the tournament. That's what I want to do. While I've still got, as we say, I'm a totally different golfer than ten years ago. We're hanging on to the strings to see if we can produce a couple more great weeks, just for the hell of it. But ten years ago, I was preparing, going in believing -- well, I was confident. I was believing I had a great chance to win. Now, it's, you know, it's 10, 12 years on, it's slightly different.

Q. How is it different? Do you go in these days thinking that everything has to go your way or the course has to be set up a certain way?

NICK FALDO: Not really. At TPC, I got in there and got on the leaderboard this year. Everybody that gets on the leaderboard thinks things need to be going their way; it's not just me. So, you know, you've got to believe that you're going to go out and play well, and that's your goal to go out there and do the best you can, but I probably don't have the same pressures on myself as did I before. If it goals well, great, and if it doesn't, there's other exciting things in my life that I can say, hey, I've got a great 25 years ahead of me.

Q. Of the four majors, which do you think maybe gives you your best chance of winning?

NICK FALDO: Probably Muirfield, I would have thought. Yeah, I think so. Simply because it's a great links course. You've still got to fashion some shots. You want the weather to be tough. So the guy who is able to work the ball around and put up some good shots here and there, or even just pulling off great pars here and there is good, rather than just being a target birdie-fest.

Q. Am I correct in the assumption that you say you will be wired that will be pre-tournament?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I won't be doing that Thursday morning, thank you.

Q. And so you'll only be on the channel during the Viewer's Forum this week?

NICK FALDO: Yeah.

Q. You said you'll be trying to take us inside the ropes a little bit. What about a question inside the room a little bit. You go to the Champions Dinner, a privileged setting. I'm just curious about what you can tell us that is like and maybe the best part of it.

NICK FALDO: Thanks for that. You've given many me a good subject. That's a good point. That's one of those unique -- unique evenings of our golfing year. A couple of years ago when we had all living Masters champions, you had Jackie Burke, who normally doesn't come, he came up and that was really special. Gene was just still with us before he passed. So, that's very special. It's just a little mind-numbing, to be honest, at times to think you're part of it. You think it's such a small group and there is the history of the Masters Tournament. And then we have -- there's usually two ends of the table. There's usually the very -- Byron Nelson at the one end and he has all of the serious ones, and I try and sit on the other end with Sam and Fuzzy and Gary Player and everybody who is giving everybody else a hard time. That's a great evening.

DAN HIGGINS: I would just like to know, why the Golf Channel? Why did you pick the Golf Channel and where do you see the relationship going forward?

NICK FALDO: Well, I admire the Golf Channel because it's a young company. You're seven years old, and when you started, everybody -- people were saying, "Who is going to watch golf 24 hours a day?" And now it has seriously expanded and I feel the same with my Junior series. You put your foot on the line and you try and do something.

I think of coverage now is fantastic. I believe it's going to be close to 50 million homes in America, or 47, something like that, very soon, and obviously, I feel it's obviously good for me, and I feel that I have genuinely something different to bring than the average golfer. You cover a lot of golf, but it's the fact that I'm able to do a couple of things off the golf course. The Golf Channel will be involved in my conception in birth of the German Jacket Restaurant, the Junior series you are already involved in, helping me promote that. And another fine idea we had is, I call it my "Mad Dash," when I'm doing my business world tour and when I go around the world in a week and do, whatever, 10 different countries in 11 days or something like that. I thought it would add something very different to people just sitting there watching golf tournaments day-in, day-out. But it's a nice little bit of insight. Obviously, good for both of us.

DAN HIGGINS: Thanks for everybody for joining us and thanks to Nick.

End of FastScripts....