Nick Faldo has come to an interesting conclusion about today’s breed of professional golfer.  “They are all too chummy,” Faldo said. “All the current generation are having lunch together and going off to play for a million dollars. I can’t imagine myself sitting with [Greg] Norman and [Nick] Pricey and having lunch together. And Tiger isn’t like that, either. In our era we were competitors, very separate individuals and we kept it that way. I heard Eric Bristow, of all people, said he would never stay with the England darts team, saying that the day they know everything about me is the day they beat me. I’ve remembered that to this day.”

As Mr. Faldo spoke these words, sitting within hearing distance was one of his main rivals Seve Ballesteros nodding vigorously in agreement with Mr. Faldo.  Between these two gentlemen they own 11 major championships and have won over 100 tournaments so their agreement on this issue deserves pondering.

Initially my thoughts ran to agreement with Mr. Faldo as I believe also that the tour players of today are way too comfortable compared to those of Mr. Faldo’s and Mr. Ballesteros’s era.  When you can become a millionaire in six months time with a single win and an endorsement deal or three where’s the fire?  Where’s the need, and I mean NEED to be successful or there’s no money at all?  When all that’s left is a shattered dream and the realization that the only thing on the horizen is a real job not doing the thing you love.  I don’t see that today.  I’m not making a value judgement but an observation.

Then my subconscious went to work on this topic for a couple of days and suddenly I had one of those cartoon lightbulb moments.  Wait a minute here, didn’t I read in every golf magazine and newspaper column about how the US Ryder Cup team was handed it’s behind on a platter by the Europeans because of the comraderie of the Euros?  So I went back to the archives, sure enough that’s what a lot of guys who write for a living were saying.  Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson made a pairing as elegant as the contents of a spittoon because they weren’t buddy buddy enough.  So if that’s why the Euros clubbed the Yanks and is also the reason those same Euros can’t come up with a dominating group of players perhaps the Yanks really do have it right? 

I have to agree with Mr. Faldo, that his era was not like the present one. “We had to play well to be here at events like these(The Open),” he said. “We had to win to create a brand and a future and a pension plan. These guys now have a future in a year. You can be a millionaire now in six months.

“You’ve got management companies guaranteeing a signing-on fee, so that’s another chunk. All I had when I started was a few hundred quid and if I had £100worth of expenses one week, Dad used to dish out the money to me in £5 notes.

“We have 100-odd wins between the two of us in this room. Now they get all excited at having 20 wins between the lot of them. Look what we achieved. We’ve got 11 majors between us in this room.

“Add in that [Bernhard] Langer won two, Ollie [José MarÍa] two, Sandy [Lyle] two, Woosie one. That’s 18 majors between six guys to zero now. No harm in being healthy competitors. Everyone wants us to be better at everything but with us it was ‘sod off, we’re off to play golf.’ ”

So, do you want to win major championships or the biannual team event?  It could be time to go it a little more alone.