Golf: Master of the comeback

THE question is not "what's wrong with Nick Faldo?" but rather "when is he going to come right again?" History tells us so. Time and again the headline writers in the golf magazines have found the six-time major champion an unreliable client.

In 1991, Faldo did not finish in the top 10 of a major championship and one magazine trumpeted: "What's wrong with Nick Faldo?" Even halfway through the next season, another headline asked: "Is Faldo's best behind him?" He promptly won his third Open Championship and five other titles besides.

Fast forward to 1996. The previous year Faldo had not finished in the top 20 in any major and another magazine announced he was "floored and flawed". Faldo, of course, soon added his third US Masters title.

Like the Liverpool team of the 1980s, and especially with another Masters just round the corner, you write Nick Faldo off at your peril.His 69 on Friday in the Players' Championship not only prevented the indignity of missing his second successive cut, but ended a run of 16 consecutive rounds in the 70s. "It's a good start," Faldo said. He could quite easily have finished eagle, birdie, birdie, if only his putting had matched the quality of his iron play. "It was a David Bowie day - I was under pressure - but it felt like I knew what I was doing. It wasn't a flash. I haven't played as well when I needed it since the Ryder Cup."

And how he needed it. Last year, in the year of his 40th birthday, he did not finish in the top 40 of a major championship and missed the cut in two of them. So far this season he has yet to finish better than 22nd in a US Tour event. In a country where Tiger Woods has been told he is in a slump for not winning there this year, Faldo has been off the hot pace set by Woods and Ernie Els at the top of the game.

Only Greg Norman has occupied the No 1 spot on the world rankings for more weeks than Faldo, yet now Faldo is down to 23rd. An unsuccessful US Masters - when he will lose points from his '96 win - would see him slip out of the top 30 and by the Open, he could even be outside the top 50. On 1 March, a 24-year-old named Lee Westwood deleted Faldo's name as the highest-ranked Englishman for the first time since before his first Open victory in 1987.

"When someone has been your childhood idol, you notice when you go past them," Westwood said. Cruel game, golf. One minute you are guiding a rookie through their first Ryder Cup, and the next he won't even give you a putting tip.

The pair played a practice round together before the Bay Hill Invitational but Westwood is not revealing the secret he discovered before winning three times in five weeks at the end of last year. "I haven't even told my mum," Westwood said. "I'm letting her still struggle."

Faldo missed the cut at Bay Hill. He came to the last needing a birdie but left his nine-iron mysteriously short of the green. A less Faldoesque shot could hardly be imagined. A chip and two putts later and he was definitely out of the last 36 holes.

"The good is as good as it has ever been," Faldo said. "Technically, better than it has ever been. Looking at the film from the 1990 Open... it's amazing." The amazing bit is that if his game really is in that shape, how can he be missing cuts? "It's just getting the consistency. I've got to get into a groove. I'm not making the most of a round. I need to get the confidence to go for the right shots when you need them."

Then he added something vaguely shocking: "With a seven-iron in my hands I used to be around the stick all day. Now I'm struggling to make par." Didn't he always make par? No matter what? Sentences are also something he struggles to complete. "It's there... just need to... just keep bashing away..."

Practice, practice, practice. It is Faldo's creed. Nothing could be more appropriate to carry his name than the state-of-the-art facility that is the Nick Faldo Institute. Had Faldo had access to the place, which opened last year at the Marriott Grande Vista in Orlando, when he was growing up, he would not have made it home for breakfast let alone dinner.

The attention to detail, as you would expect from the man, is everything. A pitching area allows you to play to flags at different yardages - to learn distance control - without moving your stance. On the 27-hole putting course, there are holes specifically designed to teach lag-putting. On the nine-hole learning course, a plaque on each tee describes what should be accomplished on the hole.

Last Sunday, while Els, Woods and Davis Love were going at it at Bay Hill, and the Faldo Institute was doing good business, Faldo was practising at home at nearby Lake Nona, also the base of his coach, David Leadbetter. An instruction photo-shoot, to coincide with the World Cup, ended up with Faldo taking penalties with Leadbetter in goal.

"He's coping really well with the frustration he is going through," Leadbetter said. "Away from the course he is relaxed about it all." The coach reiterates Faldo's feeling that technically he is better than ever. "It's more of a mental thing now," Leadbetter said. "He just has to hole a few putts, get a score under his belt and then he will be away. He is in the scoring blues right now where you make a habit of scoring 70-73. It's funny, when you make a habit of doing it, it's hard to get out of it. I think the thing for him is just to persevere. He is very close to playing well in my opinion. I only hope he gets over that hurdle. Something just has to happen, he holes a few putts, gets off to a good start and he'll be fine."

There was a time when, needing someone to hole a par putt for your life, Faldo would be the man. At the same time, if the putt was for birdie you would want Bernhard Langer (in non-yip mode) and for eagle you would take Seve Ballesteros.

It is on the greens that Faldo has been suffering most, slipping from eighth in putting on the US Tour in 1996 to 156th last year. "He has lost his rhythm with his putting and we have worked on a couple of things to get it back," Leadbetter explained. "He's doing better. It's like a racing car. The engine seems good, but the driver can't quite finish the race."

Leadbetter points out that Faldo did not have a lot of form before the 1996 Masters. "He just needs a spark." We know what could happen. In that final round against Norman, Faldo was in such control that he left himself only one downhill putt. "I never left myself a scary one," he said.

"It's all about peaking," Leadbetter said. Right now Faldo has a sharp incline to scale. But as a helicopter pilot, he knows all about vertical take-offs. As Jim Richerson, the general manager, says of the Faldo Institute: "We hope that everyone who comes here will understand and appreciate and share Nick's love of the game and his drive."

Ups and downs: How Faldo's form has faltered after the dream years

HIS SEASON SO FAR

Mercedes Championship: Qualified for the elite 30-man field by winning the Nissan Open last year. A slow start with rounds of 71 and 75 is followed by an encouraging 70, 69 - but the latter proves his only sub-70 round in the US this year before his second-round 69 at Sawgrass on Friday. Finish: 22nd

Johnnie Walker Classic: A winter's hard worked looks to have paid off as Faldo is poised one shot behind third-round leader Ernie Els after scores of 71, 67 and 69. But last-round 75 drop him three behind the Tiger Woods-Els play-off. Finish: 8th

Tucson Classic: While Sandy Lyle enjoys his best finish for almost two years in 14th, Faldo finishes 18 strokes behind the winner David Duval after rounds of 70, 73, 72, 72. Finish: 65th

Nissan Open: Defending not at Riviera but at Valcenia CC, Faldo finds no inspiration. The scores sound familiar: 73, 70, 73, 71. Finish: 43rd

Doral-Ryder Open: While Colin Montgomerie and Greg Norman miss the cut, Faldo makes the weekend, but does not particularly enjoy it. Scores of 72, 70 are followed by 74, 77 to leave him 15 strokes behind the winner, Michael Bradley. Finish: 58th

Bay Hill Invitational: In difficult, wet conditions, two rounds of 73 are not good enough to make the cut. The tournament extends his run of scores in the 70s to 15. Finish: Missed Cut

HIS title years

1977 Skol Lager

1978 Colgate PGA Championship

1979 ICI International (Africa)

1980 Sun Alliance PGA Championship

1981 Sun Alliance PGA Championship

1982 Haig Whisky TPC

1983 Paco Rabanne French Open, Martini International, Car Care Plan International, Lawrence Batley International, Ebel Swiss Open- European Masters.

1984 Car Care Plan International, Sea Pines Heritage Classic

1987 Peugeot Spanish Open, The Open

1988 Peugeot French Open, Volvo Masters

1989 Volvo PGA Championship, Dunhill British Masters, Peugeot French Open, Suntory World Match Play Championship, The Masters

1990 Johnnie Walker Classic, The Masters, The Open

1991 Carroll's Irish Open

1992 Carroll's Irish Open, Scandinavian Masters, GA European Open, Toyota World Match Play Championship, Johnnie Walker World Championship of Golf, The Open

1993 Johnnie Walker Classic, Carroll's Irish Open

1994 Alfred Dunhill Open, Nedbank Million Dollar Challenge

1995 Doral-Ryder Open

1996 The Masters

1997 Nissan Open

HIS US TOUR STATISTICS

1996 1997 1998

Money list 12th 58th 116th

Accuracy 2nd 6th 10th

Greens in reg 59th 89th 91st

Putting 8th 156th 141st