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THE SENIOR OPEN PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 25, 2018

Nick Faldo

St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom

TOM CARLISLE: Delighted to be joined by Sir Nick Faldo, six-time Major Champion and winner of The Open here in 1990. You've had a chance to go around the Old Course this week. Does it all come back to you every time you come around?

SIR NICK FALDO: Luckily, yes. Memory's still good. Yes, as usual, it's delightful. I'm glad I'm here. I'm going to with my limited schedule, practise.

I had a couple good sessions with Nick Bradley. He does the SKY TV in America and he's a huge fan of my instructional books, lines all over it. I thought, why don't you come and spend some time with me then and see if the book works, see if what's in the book makes sense now 30 years on. We had a couple good sessions in Florida at the Greenbrier, so at least I've got some constructive thoughts going, which is great. Looking forward to hopefully being half-decent on the golf course, would be nice.

TOM CARLISLE: You've played this golf course eight times in Open Championships.

SIR NICK FALDO: Is that all?

TOM CARLISLE: Is it one you know like the back of your hand?

SIR NICK FALDO: The beauty of St. Andrews, or many golf courses, IS you come back and look at the mounding around the greens, come with my architectural eye, as well, I'm going to build a replica of No. 11 in my backyard one day because as you probably know, Jim Nantz has this little short par 3, these balls that go half the distance, seems like great fun. You can whack away and you can hit proper little wedge shots, so I thought I would do No. 11. Do No. 11 and No. 18 at Muirfield. Thought that would be very cool.

Yes and no, walking the mounds with Matthew on Monday, you go, the mounds look bigger or smaller, generally bigger. So looking forward to plodding our way around and kind of know where the championship hole locations will be. It's good fun.

Q. What do you make Sam Locke and his performance, and the state of Scottish golf at the moment?
SIR NICK FALDO: Sam Locke, that was great. That must be a great feeling, locking out the Silver Medal at the weekend. I don't honestly know of -- you mean Scottish amateur golf or Scottish professional golf or any Scottish golf?

They are all -- I don't know to be honest. What do I know about Scottish golf? Everything.

Yeah, a couple of good players out on Tour. As I said, Sam, that was a great performance. Everybody's out there trying their best.

Q. What's the extent of your competitive schedule this year?
SIR NICK FALDO: This and probably the tournament in the Carolinas called SAS on the Champions Tour. And the following fifth major, the Father and Son, in December.

Q. Not played since the Father Son last year?
SIR NICK FALDO: Nothing competitive since then. I tried last year. I had a run where I played about four or five events, and I thought I gave it a decent effort and I found it very deflating to be honest. You know, you gear up and go and play, and it didn't go -- you don't get the results that you want, and I deemed it hard work.

So this year, I'm going to Montana instead. Just golf and fish and enjoy myself.

Q. What are your expectations this week?
SIR NICK FALDO: When you see something to work on, I feel that I could -- if I leave saying to myself, I played nicely for a change, that's really a goal to be honest. I know how I can hit it. It would be nice to keep that level up as much as I can, keep the quality of the shots. When I hit shots, they are good shots, really good shots. It would be nice to see what percentage I could keep that going.

Q. Would you have played this event at St. Andrews in a seniors event?
SIR NICK FALDO: Probably not. It's always a treat to come back to St. Andrews, it really. Is it's obviously better to have won here but the whole town, the whole atmosphere, is fantastic, isn't it.

Q. Could this be it competitively for you in the U.K.?
SIR NICK FALDO: In the future? Could this be -- I don't know. It's always nice, never say never. All depends on how you feel and what-have-you, because the great thing about this game, it doesn't let go, does it. It tortures you. It keeps saying, come on, you can go and practise; I think I can play. You always want to go play. I'd like to think I could tee it up and actually enjoy myself. That's the bottom nine.

Q. We heard Langer talking about his opinion on the course, first time playing it and how it changed over the years. Wonder your opinions?
SIR NICK FALDO: I was fortunate, I loved it right from the word go. Gerald Micklem was a fan of mine. He had three pages of handwritten notes on how to play St. Andrews, and all the lines, for when people think hit it left, he was saying hit it right to give you a better angle, and he had bunker names.

He gave me lines of every -- which I literally -- I then transcribed into little cards, 3 X 5s, so the very first time I played here, I went out and said, right, first hole, aim at the flags; and second, down the right; three, here, ball, there's the mound in front. Sitting at Sunningdale, writing those notes, it was pretty impressive. He gave me all the kind of the angles and where the championship pins, the lines -- because the championship pins go on lines through the greens.

So I loved it. That was right up my street, Faldo's street, there's a way to play a golf course; there's a route, a plan to it. I loved it from day one.

Q. Did you keep any of that?
SIR NICK FALDO: Unfortunately, no. I kick myself for that one. That would have been a nice one to have kept. I've got very few bits. My dad found a handwritten note from Henry Cotton, which I've got generally, my Hogan book which Hogan signed but I haven't got much memorabilia like that unfortunately.

Q. You plotted your way around Muirfield when you won, 18 pars, and that discussion came up on Sunday. Just wondering if you ever thought that in this game, today, that anybody could go around and plot their way around a golf course and par might win a major championship.
SIR NICK FALDO: Well, it would at a U.S. Open, wouldn't it because they are always looking for level par for their winning score.

Q. Let's try to stay on this side of the pond.
SIR NICK FALDO: Yeah, that was a pretty unique day, that day. Remember the fog came in, it was that pea soup. I was trying to make birdies and I was very nervous and I was nervous on the greens. If I had a chance, I was not putting great, but I managed to scramble some great pars downslope of the bunker shot I hit at 8, was really special, that one. Good chip and it got up-and-down at 11.

But you know, I was just trying to, you know, the first time winning a major, it's that whole sensation of staying completely engrossed in -- Tony Jacklin called it cocoon, now we call it in the zone. I was in that little world for walking along, and it was a whole new feeling of the whole intensity of trying to win The Open.

You know, trying to keep your concentration, keep doing the same thing, and that was a tough golf course that day. The golf course was going nowhere. I always remember, 18 -- sorry, 16, I had 187 and I busted 2-iron and it went 182.

17, I made a decision, I couldn't get over the cross-bunkers which were 200 yards. So I went 5-iron, 5-iron. Didn't think I could carry my second shot 200 yard. How about that? And then the last, came and hit the 5 on the last.

Unbelievably awkward conditions where the golf ball just wouldn't go. So adapting to that, thinking I've got a chance to win The Open, was weird and wonderful.

Q. When you won The Open here in 1990, it was the first time you found yourself in a position where you had such a lead. How did that differ mentally when you were in that position?
SIR NICK FALDO: Well, it was weird going out Sunday morning with a five-shot lead and you're like, okay, what's your strategy and I walked around and I couldn't -- to be honest, I didn't get into -- I was feeling protective. You think, I want to go for this putt, and I think, right, surely if I hit it four feet past that would be a silly waste. I used my lead to just stay in the right place and then Payne Stewart made a run and then he got within two and I hit a really great 5-iron on 15 to about 18 and hole that had and got me back to the three-shot lead and I was back feeling comfortable again.

Yeah, big lead, felt weird to go and keep plowing on because you kind of like don't want to spend them. You don't want to make an unforced error I guess.

Q. Going back to Sam Locke, do you have any advice for him as he turns professional and do you see any reason why he can't follow in the footsteps of other Silver Medal winners, McIlroy and Justin Rose?
SIR NICK FALDO: He's a really talented kid, and under Paul's guidance, he's got a great mentor there.

Yeah, getting out on Tour and play -- it's a different world, amateur. He'll learn. The mental stamina required for professional golf, that's what I found so different. You play amateur golf every other weekend, sort of thing, and then it's not -- then you come out on Tour and you do a month of solid golf. So you play golf, fly Sunday night to another tournament, play again; Sunday night to another tournament, play again. That, mentally, your residual strength, that's what he'll slowly develop.

That would be my advice to just pace yourself -- well, learn from that, and how it's -- there's a lot going on in professional golf and it's constant. You arrive at the golf course now Monday mornings and there will be 50 other guys practising. It's serious stuff now. Mental strength -- physical and mental strength will be key.

Q. Does it help talking to other players that have been in the same position?
SIR NICK FALDO: Yeah, there's many young rookies who have done a couple years and they will give him advice on what's what, traveling, hotels, lifestyle. Slightly easier now. We used to travel with our practise balls and our cassette player was this big then, it was (chuckling). Yeah, it's a nice world to be a pro golfer.

Q. Do you think he's got the ability to match people like that, like Rose and McIlroy?
SIR NICK FALDO: He's a talented kid. Give him time to go out and play and see what he gets up to.

Q. Why the 11th hole at St. Andrews?
SIR NICK FALDO: I love the Strath Bunker because it's one of the ones that's right in play. A lot of the bunkers at St. Andrews are left-to-right, so that one, is right in your face. Plus it fits in the corner and the shape of the garden. Got a left-to-right this -- when I hit a couple of great shots there at The Open, I think I made a 2 -- I made one or two 2s, there, but it fits and I thought, that's a nice look.

The one thing I still want to do is come here and play the course backwards, because when you turn around -- we were walking down 12 and you turn around and look back, you've got the bunker not in play, but if you're coming off 13 tee, back up to, yeah, 11 green, you should look at that, it's fantastic. You've got the bunker in the middle of the fairway and you have the biggest bunker in front of the green and we all know what the green looks like behind. I've got to come and play backwards. Would love that.

TOM CARLISLE: Thank you very much for your time.

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