Golf: Faldo must give the lead

AT SCHOOL Nick Faldo did not excel at team sports. Golf, essentially a selfish pursuit, was his bag but this year the onus will be on the world No 1 to do his stuff for Europe against the United States in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry. When Tom Watson, the United States captain, arrives in Britain he will set the tone. 'We have come over here,' he will say, 'to kick ass.'

Faldo's record in the biennial contest - he has played in every one since 1977 - is not bad but it could be better: played 31 matches, won 17, lost 12, halved two. It is only in the last 10 years that Europe have brought the match to life after decades of American domination or ass-kicking.

The Europeans won at The Belfry in 1985 and, for the first time, in America two years later. In 1989 the match was tied and, at Kiawah Island in South Carolina in 1991, the United States won 14 1/2-13 1/2. Europe, according to the world rankings, had the stronger side and had things gone to plan they could have won the last four encounters.

One reason they did not is that Faldo did not perform like an elder statesman. In the singles at the last hole on the last day at The Belfry in 1989 he drove into the lake, thereby losing the chance of breaking the deadlock and at Kiawah his contribution was one point out of a possible four.

If Seve Ballesteros, who in the Ryder Cup invariably plays like a man possessed, is still in the doldrums come September, Bernard Gallacher, the captain of Europe, will be looking to Faldo to play a leading role on and off the course. Should he do so he might even win the Golf Writers' Trophy which in 1992 went to Laura Davies and the other members of Europe's Solheim Cup team.

Faldo defends his Open Championship title at Royal St George's, Sandwich, the course over which Sandy Lyle won his first major in 1985. We are still waiting for Jose-Maria Olazabal to join the premier league although Faldo has doubts about the Spaniard's technique. Three young Englishmen, Jim Payne, Jamie Spence and Mark Roe should make their mark in the new year and one or two Swedes should finally break into the Ryder Cup team.

Fred Couples, the couch potato, will probably take time off from watching basketball on television to defend the Masters at Augusta in April. As we speak the azaleas are being lovingly nurtured. One player who will enjoy the experience is Stephen Dundas, a teenager from Glasgow who earned his invitation to the Masters by winning the Amateur Championship at Carnoustie. Alas, John 'Wild Thing' Daly, a sensation on the practice ground at Augusta eight months ago when he drove the ball over the fence and on to the main highway, may have to watch the progress of his colleagues on television at a rehabilitation centre for alcohol abuse.