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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 11, 2005

Nick Faldo

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, we have Nick Faldo. Thank you for coming in. You won the second of your three titles in 1990. Tell us how it feels to be back.

NICK FALDO: Obviously I love this place. It's very special, simple as that. It's steeped in history and words to describe it are probably not enough, most of the time.

Q. Where were you when you first heard about the bombings and do you think this Open will hold a special significance for people?

NICK FALDO: I was about 20 miles north of London. My daughter was in town, so once I heard, about 9:30, I called her. And of course we couldn't get through, all the cell phones were shot already. But I managed to contact her. And initially they were talking about there being power surges, which I thought, no, there's no such thing as power surges, it happened in five different locations. I sensed what was happening, and like everybody else, I also have an office in town and they were all out and about. Some used the tube to come in, as well. I think once everybody was rounded up they'd already made a plan to get out of London by lunchtime, because it took three hours to do a normal journey that takes an hour. My team and my daughter all left town as soon as they could.

Q. How close was she actually?

NICK FALDO: No, no, she was in Soho.

Q. Second part of the question?

NICK FALDO: Well, I think as Londoners have shown, you carry on. These people are out to disrupt our lives and freedom, but we will just simply stand up and carry on.

Q. How different is this course from when you won here in 1990? Given the changes made this year, does it make it even more likely that Tiger Woods will win this year?

NICK FALDO: I think the course is very similar, but the changes are good. You've got your thinking caps on, 12, 13 and 14 now.

12, there's all sorts of options there. The cross bunkers are totally hidden from the tee, but they run you have to play up very short of them, in between is very difficult, Jack proved it's possible today. Or you bomb it over if you're long enough. If you're not long enough and you don't want to go in between, you have to play up way short. So all sorts going on there.

13, depending on the wind, we have to go down the right. Normally I'd go up the left. They're contemplating using some new pins on 7 and 13, and probably find some more, as well, that we haven't seen before. So it will be quite different, I guess, in that sense.

And I don't think it sets up for Tiger, but I think Tiger is the favorite, obviously. He's played he's won, and he comes here with a mission, as always, and his record of every event where Nicklaus is basically handing over the torch, he's the one who wins every time. So we shall see.

Q. I think Tiger was 19 under five years ago here.

NICK FALDO: What do you mean you think? I know. He beat me he wasn't worried about winning The British Open, he wanted to beat my 18 under.

Q. Do you think that can be beat if the wind wasn't there?

NICK FALDO: If the wind wasn't there, sure, it can be, because really it's quite short going out and it all depends. I'm sure they're going to have to protect it with some serious pins.

Q. Do you think someone could shoot 59 this week?

NICK FALDO: No, no, the golfing gods will strangle them on 17, just in case.

Q. How impressed were you with the way Jack played? He was very steady today?

NICK FALDO: He's been playing a fair bit the last couple of weeks, and he knows what he's doing. He's still got his good old he's got the classic Nicklaus fade working on that, just about all around. I had to shoot 68 to beat him, so that was respectable.

Q. (Inaudible)?

NICK FALDO: Hopefully a little bit longer, if I get the right bounce.

Q. Just to go back to Tiger, when he won here, he got 4 rounds without hitting a bunker, and he's had two practice rounds without hitting a bunker as well. As a former champion here, can you make any significance of that?

NICK FALDO: No, that's the strategy. The strategy of this golf course is respect for the bunkers. When I won it I hit it in one. And that's the whole key to this place, you have to respect them. And anything can happen. You get under the lip and you have to come out backwards or whatever and you can't even get to it. That's not the way to play. So that's the key. He knows exactly he's going to come and play to a game plan, simple as that.

Q. Is it quite ominous, he's done two practice rounds

NICK FALDO: Practice doesn't mean anything. Practice is for fun.

Q. The 17th hole is only slightly changed. What do you think of that hole now and how it plays? And have you ever had any memorable misadventures or seen anybody have any memorable misadventures in their rounds here?

NICK FALDO: They've narrowed 17 and they've shortened the landing area. So downwind the long guys will probably have to use a big iron or a 3 wood. Obviously keep people back, so you're always going to have a decent length into the pin. As I said, I've played every hole with great respect. When I won, my mission was to miss the green in the right place. When we were hitting 3 irons to 17, and I put it back left, I would deliberately almost try to hit it on the 18th tee to come in backwards.

Basically you're taking anything worse than five off the score card, that's what you're trying to guarantee, because anything can happen. If you start shopping around and get in the Road Bunker, you don't need that. About the only green, I think, for me, personally, that I've ever in normal playing conditions, maybe we would intentionally miss it.

Q. What are people hitting in this year?

NICK FALDO: We're mid irons at the moment. I've hit 6 irons I've hit 7, 6 and 5 there the last three times.

Q. As this is our Open, do you think we can have a British winner this year, by any chance?

NICK FALDO: The guys have been performing well, so I think we've got plenty of players now. It's who's got the whatever we want to call it, the 15th club to finish it off.

Q. Any particular names you would suspect are going to be there?

NICK FALDO: I think on this kind of weather and the toughness, obviously Luke Donald has been playing pretty consistent, Lee Westwood is consistent in the wind, and there will be a few of us in the hunt, I'm sure.

Q. We always assume players from the UK have an advantage on courses like this. Are they as familiar with links golf as maybe you and your contemporaries might have been when you were growing up?

NICK FALDO: Maybe not. We don't play as many links courses throughout the year on Tour. If you know what you're doing, if you understand through your practice rounds how much release is on each hole, look how Watson Watson used to come over and kill us, simply because he knew exactly what he was doing. He was a great ball striker and would land the ball where he intended. That's the simple secret. You've just got to hit the shots that you intend, and you've got to be able to adapt to lies and bounce and wind and trajectory, all those sorts of things.

Q. Seve said earlier that he's not taking up his place, he doesn't feel competitive here. Can we take it you still feel competitive and feel you could still beat?

NICK FALDO: I'm looking forward to this week, because you've got to if you play if you hit the ball solid, with the size of the greens, your misses will still be on the green. So then it's down to long putting. The short game or scrambling so much around the green doesn't come so much into play at St. Andrews. But they might do if they choose a few more of these new pin positions. If you want to play safe, there's plenty of room somewhere on the green, but you will end up with a 30 or 40 yard putt. But if it gets firm and tough pins then the best players are still going to win. You won't be able to just slap it around here and make the score.

Q. How did it work out that you played with Jack today? And secondly, are you as a professional golfer as sentimental as we are about playing with him in his last Open?

NICK FALDO: Yes. Second part, yes, I am sentimental about it. I wanted to play with Jack here. When I put a call in through my offices to his PA and said, is he free, and they said, yep, see you Monday at 11:00, and I said perfect. I got my picture on the bridge with Jack. My son, Matthew, is 16, and he's my practice round caddie this week. So I thought that was a pretty neat picture for him, as well.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to whichever day he comes up 18 as his last competitive round at a major, it's going to be I will be I know I'll be emotionally feeling it. He was the inspiration for me starting this game and I think it's fantastic he's come here to St. Andrews to play his last major round. I think that's just brilliant.

Q. You mentioned Luke Donald as a possible British winner, do you think it will be a help or hindrance that he's playing with Jack Nicklaus for the first two rounds?

NICK FALDO: I think it will be a help because Jack is a great competitor and he's still a competitor. He still wants to play and he understands the strategy of the golf course, as well. He knows where to play smart. So that will be I would have thought that would be a good draw for Luke.

Q. Just going back to that, do you think Jack is capable of making the cut?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I would have thought so. Yeah, he's playing solid enough. He's got a couple of days to keep at it, but he knows what he's doing out there. I definitely think he would do that.

Q. I know that golf isn't going to be an Olympic sport, but London getting the Olympics, all sports in Britain should benefit from it. Do you feel that golf could benefit from getting more kids involved in sport?

NICK FALDO: All I hope from us getting the Olympics is that we start to recognize sport as a career more in this country. I think that's I had to fight it. We don't have the same set up as America with the college sport and scholarships. We have very few sports scholarships. That's what I hope will come from this, that people will realize that sport will then lead them through college and stay in sport but then go into business.

That's what I think is so impressive in America, is that business men have been down that route, then support the Final Four, which is their amateur basketball, and it's a national event. I mean how many national amateur events do you have on America on national TV? And it's major attention, isn't it, a hell of a lot. And I think that's what's so impressive. We just don't have that in Britain. And I think that's I hope that's a mission for them, as well, that sport does become recognized as a genuine career.

Q. Regardless of whether Tiger matches or beats Nicklaus's 18 pro majors, do you think Tiger or anyone else will ever accomplish as much overall as Nicklaus has?

NICK FALDO: That would be difficult. He's the best ambassador on and off the golf course, through golf, through well, golf on the course, golf off the course, business on the course, family life off the golf course. He's a pretty special guy, pretty special family. Barbara takes an awful lot of credit in that, as well. But they're pretty good role models for any young kid.

Q. You were just talking about the lack of amateur set up here and the things you had to fight when you were growing up. What were some of those things and how did you fight through them?

NICK FALDO: No, you were very much an individual. You have to do your own thing. I had to leave school if you wanted to pursue a sport you had to leave school. I left school at 16. And a lot of individuals in other sports have other stories, I would have thought that there wasn't a way of sport happening enough. I'm sure it's improved. We're talking 30 years ago when I left school, a bit more, 35. So I'm sure it's improved. But as I said, I hope the mission out of this Olympics is that it can improve even more.

Q. Tiger is ahead of Jack in reaching nine majors. If you were a betting man, do you think that will continue, and he could well exceed that?

NICK FALDO: You have to believe it, yes. Tiger has the desire. We know that's one of his goals. He wants to be the greatest. So if he maintains that desire and the intention and the work ethic to do that, you have to believe that he could get there. Big if he wanes. Right now, if that's his goal, it wouldn't surprise me if he got there.

Q. A totally different question. This also looks like this will be Tony's last appearance in The Open. Is there a way that he ought to be recognized for his contribution, as well, to European golf?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I think totally his golden years were through the Ryder Cup, the way he transformed the Ryder Cup, his captaincy was the best. And yeah, I'm sure the European golf should definitely do something for Tony.

Q. What's the split, if any, on your playing duties? Do you have TV duties this week?

NICK FALDO: I do.

Q. How is that going to work out?

NICK FALDO: I hope the priority will be golf. It will be. I will be in there when I'm not golfing. I'm sure I'll do a couple of hours. Whatever day I play early, I'll go in there, play late, and play at the weekend and pop in and tell them what it's like out there. That would be quite a good insight to have you off the golf course to tell them what it really is doing.

Q. Would it be tough for you to shift gears like that?

NICK FALDO: It will be, but I'm very adaptable.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Nick, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

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