Sir Nick Faldo has provided an explanation of Team USA’s mistakes during the Ryder Cup and why the PGA Tour will beat LIV Golf.
Even though Sir Nick Faldo is no longer commentating on golf, his thoughts will still be shared with us.
On October 25, the hall of famer appeared on Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio to discuss the Ryder Cup, the PGA Tour, and of course LIV Golf.
Faldo has never been a circuit enthusiast. We propose that one of those reasons is his intense rivalry with Greg Norman.
First, the six-time major champion, 66 years old, shared his opinions on what went wrong for Team USA in the 2023 Ryder Cup.
From his perspective, Zach Johnson’s picks—all of whom were “running hot and cold”—were the reason it went wrong.
He said, “I can guarantee you that if you’re not playing well at a Ryder Cup, it’s the worst arena to play in because you’re under so much pressure to perform for the rest of the team.”
He explained: “The big four [European players] came in and you’ve got to get a huge bunch of points. Then I thought it was very cool that our rookies, America doesn’t know a lot about our rookies, [Nicolai] Hojgaard and [Ludvig] Aberg and Bobby MacIntyre, they don’t know a lot about these guys and that can be very useful.
“So, which they obviously did, the captains can say, ‘Relax, you’ve all to gain this week. If you can just get me a point you’ve done a great job.’ Well, they did more than that. So we got that added bonus as well.
“And then we had to look at Zach’s picks, his six picks, I mean, all those guys are great guys, great golfers, but they were all running hot and cold, or trying to find their games and saying, you know, ‘I can turn it on for you, captain.'”
He continued: “But I’ve been there and got the T-shirt. When you’re not playing great at a Ryder Cup I can promise you it is the worst arena to be playing in because you are under so much pressure to do something for the rest of the team. And you won’t find it, and we saw all of that unravel. And Europe was extremely focused.
“You could literally see it in their eyes right on the first tee. They stood up there and looked down the fairway. And America, to be honest, I looked and thought, ‘These guys, they’ve got too much peripheral vision. They’re just looking at everything.’ And Europe was very focused on the job at hand, what they had to do.”
Faldo then spoke of the differences between the PGA Tour and LIV, which just concluded their second campaign.
The Englishman said he would have ‘loved to earn’ more money in his career.
But he’s proud of the fact he underwent a memorable, significant swing change to win majors.
The PGA Tour makes you strive, he said.
Faldo said: “It is a different style of golf [LIV]. And the Tour is the Tour, or the Tours, you know, and we would deem it as proper golf, 72 holes, 36-hole cut. All of that is all part of your learning experience.
“Cause you’ve gotta strive, you know? Here’s the bottom line, you know, you’ve got to strive, you know, everything in life is a struggle, isn’t it? So you strive and from striving, you then achieve something.
“So if you’ve achieved something, you then get satisfaction from doing that. And then from your satisfaction, you then create a memory. Well, if there’s nothing to strive for then there’s no memory.
“When I look back at my career, you don’t think of the dollar sign. You think, I went through a swing change for two years and then came out of it and finally winning, win my first major and what have you, and then became a pretty darn decent golfer for five years.
That gives you pride in the work you did. And I’ll always have that. That’s where I think there’s a distinction. Yes, it would have been a pleasure to make tens of millions more. I do not dispute that.
However, there’s something about competing and challenging yourself that makes you feel proud of your accomplishments. Because the Tour is not the same competition, I believe that its competitive golf will continue to grow. Actually, it’s not.”
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