BRITISH OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 15, 2003

Nick Faldo

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Nick Faldo. Nick, this is your 4th Open Championship at Sandwich. What are your feelings here after that number of years.

NICK FALDO: I must be getting old. I can't remember 1981, so that's a good start. I've always enjoyed playing here. I think it's -- well, especially this year. They must be delighted with the way the course is set up. It's a real true links. So I think it's really great, we've got this variety on the Tour. Out of the four majors, this really is something different. So I think it's so far set up really well.

Q. How do you compare the rough to '93?

NICK FALDO: I can't remember. I was never in the rough, so, you know -- it's still thick, but it's dried out, obviously. Because it's long and stalky, it still wraps around your shaft, and the thing goes left if you're not careful. It's still tough. But they're kind of going more this year for creating fast runoffs by the side of a lot of greens, which I think is nice. I think it creates a lot of character, because you put a pin tight on a certain side, there might not be a trap there, but you just don't want to miss the green on the wrong side of the green.

Q. You've shown a great interest in the young English golfers, are there any here that come up to the plate?

NICK FALDO: They're all here, yeah. I'm sure there will be a few of them who are going to be in there competing this week. I would say it's all part of the learning curve, how well they do, how long they stay in there, can they stay in there all the way. That's the questions they'll be asking themselves. But this is a great opportunity for them.

Q. Do you think any of them can essentially win it this year?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I'm not going to put in any names. But I think this year's a good year, the way the course is set up, to give home players or European players a really good chance this year.

Q. Padraig Harrington said that, too. He said he thought this was a good chance for the Europeans. You go along with that, do you?

NICK FALDO: Exactly, yeah. It requires -- this is true links. It requires landing the ball in the right area and having a lot of imagination, a good bit of research and a good bit of preparation to know exactly how the ball is going to behave. So that's how you have to play a links. You have to play the percentages, land it in the right areas, get the right bounce, can you work the ball towards a pin or do you just work the ball into safe areas. It's going to be a good shotmaker's course this week, I think.

Q. I read that you said you wouldn't play if your wife was giving birth or was about to give birth?

NICK FALDO: Everything is going well. So I just told her to sit still. Technically it's due about ten days after the Open, but it's all progressing normally. I don't want her jumping around and going out mowing the lawn or anything.

Q. If you're contending on Sunday, she's to sit very still indeed?

NICK FALDO: Very still. Don't even put the tele on, I wouldn't.

Q. What would you do on Sunday morning?

NICK FALDO: Come on, give me a scenario, six shots lead, six shots and the phone goes (laughter.) I've been told to stay and play. That would be good. I'd like to be in that position and see what happens, that would test me.

Q. Is there a bigger chance of a fourth baby than a fourth title this week?

NICK FALDO: Oh, you never know. I feel good at the moment. I've played well this morning, and dusted off the youngsters, which was very nice for my pocket. And I'm enjoying it out there. The way the course is set up you've just got to play really with imagination. Exactly as I say, you've got to know these slopes. If you hit the shots and get rewarded because you've done your homework, then it makes you feel good, and keeps the score going, as well. I think that helps.

Q. You and Greg, I think, both shot four rounds in the 60s in 1993. Do you think that's possible again this time?

NICK FALDO: Probably. I would have thought with the weather. But again who knows, they may have some -- there's a great opportunity to put some sneaky, tough pins. And if it got faster, they could let the greens go. It could blow a gale. So there's an awful lot -- if it was good, yeah, these guys would shoot -- the winner would have to be in the 60s, I would have thought.

Q. Expanding on what you're saying about your younger golfers, can you just tell us a bit about the master plan you'd like to have in British Junior Golf?

NICK FALDO: The Master plan? Well, the goal is to create as many -- the goal so to create as many players of all age groups coming through. What I'm trying to do with my Faldo team is -- I have 7 golfers right now. I'd love to have 7 one year, and then add on another 7, so I've got 14, 21, whatever number it might be, and keep producing. So in five years time we have 30 or 40 players that are constantly, you know, under coaching and -- they've got very much a hands-on. That's the big mission right now. So we hopefully increase the percentage chance of -- rather than one golfer coming on Tour every couple of years, it would be great if it was one every year and then two every year and then maybe three or four. Who knows what you then create out of those players. If you then create -- have to create better percentage of potential major winners.

Q. At the moment do you feel you're working in tandem with the authorities or are you pretty much on your own?

NICK FALDO: I'm just about on my own at the present time.

Q. I know you've had a sort of slight fallout with the English Ladies Golf Association?

NICK FALDO: Handbags at -- Louie Vuittons at 20 paces. No, no. All we want is the players to be supported. And I can appreciate -- we have a very good professional team and so I think -- that's all I'm trying to do, is give them that professional insight, even in amateur golf is to have professionals looking after them. I think it's a great, great plus.

Q. So essentially you want to work with them and have them all come together. That's your master plan?

NICK FALDO: Exactly, yeah, support from everybody would be great.

Q. At the Scottish Open, do you think in Ernie Els' continued form, do you think the gap between Ernie and Tiger is closing? Is there evidence of that?

NICK FALDO: It's a tough one. Sometimes. Some weeks. After the first couple of majors this year you would feel that the players are closing on Tiger, wouldn't you? But then I'm sure Tiger is more than aware of that. He's going to make a big effort this week. He's the shotmaker at the moment. I'm sure he's enjoying it out there, as well.

Q. Do you think the gap is closing, though? Because he was winning every major a while ago, and he obviously isn't nowadays. Do you think the rest of the pack is catching up?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, they have caught up, those first two, but we'll see what happens with major No. 3.

Q. Would you be here this week if you didn't believe you could win the tournament?

NICK FALDO: No, I wouldn't. No. Obviously the odds are slimmer now, but you never know -- that's the great thing we live with in this game. When I hit my good shots they're very good. And it's getting the consistency up.

Q. In your own mind -- you've won a number of majors, but if you are to win another one is it going to be on a shotmaker's course like this?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I would think a course like this is going to give me a better percentage, a better chance.

Q. Do you think this course is set up fairly for the shorter hitters on Tour?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, this is not really a -- when a links plays like a true links, everybody drives it a pretty long way, but it's the way the holes change around, which I think is great. The second hole is playing very long right now, the last two days, where before it was -- they could have lengthened it, but into the breeze it's a totally different hole. That's what's so enjoyable.

Q. How much improvement is it going to take in your game to challenge this week?

NICK FALDO: Not a lot. It's just maintaining that consistency through the whole -- well, as many holes as possible, either 70 or 71, I don't mind just slipping up on one. That's the secret.

Q. Jim Furyk was in here earlier. What does winning a first major do for your confidence and for your game? Do you see that propelling him, and even Mike Weir for that matter?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, I think once they've broken that barrier, they want to win another one, because it proves that -- it's just proof that it wasn't your first time, a flash in the pan. When I won The Masters, the first Masters, that was the big message to me, wow, two of them, rather than just one and that was it. That was his lucky week. But to do it regularly it was a big difference.

Q. What is the hardest thing about trying to win your first major?

NICK FALDO: If you believe you've prepared well, you've just got to get in and play, that's the bottom line. And obviously a self-belief you've got that you can finish it off. Obviously as the days increase and you've got to hit shots under the -- as the pressure mounts, you have to have a great self-belief, know that you can do it every time, a strong mental discipline, really.

Q. Would you say this tournament, not necessarily this week, but on a yearly basis is your best chance to win a major now? And how has that changed from maybe ten years ago or has it changed?

NICK FALDO: Yeah, as we said, this is the best chance for me to win a major, on a true links. And we're ten years on, a lot of things have changed, everything from life to golf to my body. So we shall see.

Q. This is just another hypothetical.

NICK FALDO: I like them.

Q. If you were to win this week, how tempted would you be to retire the following day?

NICK FALDO: No, I've got to play golf on Monday, I'm booked.

Q. How about Tuesday?

NICK FALDO: Tuesday, I'll think about it (laughter.)

Q. Judging by what you've said, Nick, about the course and the way it's playing, should we be looking at very experienced players like yourself and maybe even Bernhard Langer, who has a terrific record around here?

NICK FALDO: It's any of the shot makers, the guys who can control the ball flight well. That's very important out here. You've got to hit the shot that you've intended. You can't knock it up in the wind and hope, no.

Q. Do you still have the mental discipline?

NICK FALDO: Sometimes. I've an awful lot going on around me. That's been a bit of a distraction. But now I'm here, yeah, I've got good discipline this week, got good game plan and going to do it and see what happens.

Q. What was the piece of advice you were most keen to pass on to the other three this morning?

NICK FALDO: I take cash (laughter.) I didn't want to jump in. The guys are playing well. They're doing their own thing. If they want my help, I'm here. Simple as that, that's all -- I don't want to leap in. This is a week when the guys know what they're doing, and trying to do their own thing, if they need my thoughts on anything.

Q. It was a singles match?

NICK FALDO: Casey and I stuffed a little Rose -- do you know their full names, Rose and Poulter, they lost quite a few bets, which was wonderful.

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