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19th Hole

Sir Nick Faldo has some interesting thoughts on LIV golfers in the Ryder Cup and Greg Norman

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2 months ago

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While LIV players look forward to their first event of the year at Mayakoba in just four weeks’ time, the ex-European Tour players have been told by Sir Nick Faldo that as far as this year’s Ryder Cup is concerned, “they’re done.”

My favourite game: Nick Faldo v Greg Norman, 1996 Masters | The Masters | The Guardian

There is very little love lost between the 1996 Masters 1-2 these days.

In a week that has seen reports of reduced offers for new signings, the ‘unofficial’ tour has also witnessed increased momentum behind the TGL tour, with Collin Morikawa joining fellow major champions Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas in the technology-led midweek league in 2024.

Led by the fiercely anti-LIV Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, the two-time major champion may have been having a side-swipe at the Saudi-backed league when stating in his press release that:

“I think the design of TGL to provide sports fans the world’s best in a weekly, primetime golf competition, from start-to-end in only two hours, will appeal to a broader spectrum of casual golf fans and introduce our sport to younger fans.”

Barring injury, McIlroy, Morikawa, JT and Rahm are certain to be facing each other at the Marco Simone club later this year, but whilst Faldo may be uncertain about who will be in the team, he is very clear about who should be missing.

Players that have made a huge impression in recent Ryder Cups — Ian Poulter, Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell — have all made the decision to join LIV over the past year, something Faldo says makes the result easy:

“They shouldn’t be there because they’ve gone off and you’ve got to move on,” Faldo said when interviewed on Sky Sports News.

The 11-time Ryder Cup player and retired broadcaster admitted that age is certainly against them, but with no official ranking or Ryder Cup points awarded to LIV results, it is also going to be virtually impossible for any of the previous stalwarts to re-appear in Italy.

That is, of course, all subject to the result of an upcoming hearing, challenging any ban by the PGA Tour and restrictions by the DP World Tour.

With LIV player Henrik Stenson — the original European team captain — sacked within three months of being appointed, Luke Donald knows that he needs to choose wisely when it comes to his six free picks, and Faldo suggests this is the time to bank of the rookies:

“They’re [European LIV players] all at the age where Europe needs to find a new breed of 25-year-olds that can play half a dozen or more Ryder Cups, and I think we’re going to have that.”

“They’re done,” he said confidently, before continuing: “It’s a rival tour. If you work for a company for 20 years and you then leave to go to a rival company, I can promise you your picture won’t still be on the wall. You’ve moved on. Fine, off you go.”

“They made that decision and I’m sure they knew it was going to cost them,” Faldo said. “They were playing the maths game. They were getting a huge chunk of money up front, and they knew it was going to lose them sponsors, but they thought ‘I still win’.”

Faldo also commented on the LIV tour in general, offering his thoughts on the organization fronted by Greg Norman, his great rival on the course throughout his career, and against whom he overcame a six-shot deficit to win the 1996 Masters.

“It’s [LIV] a closed shop: 48 guys given loads of money,” Faldo said. “What gripes me is it’s not growing the game of golf. That really gets me when they fly across the world to a country that’s been playing golf for 100 plus years and say, ‘we’re growing the game of golf’.”

Of his great rival, with whom he split eight major titles in a 10 year period from 1986, the 65-year-old said:

“He was a great golfer. He really was a charismatic, exciting golfer and he’s absolutely wrecked all of that.”

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Chuck

    Jan 28, 2023 at 12:57 pm

    Spot on, Sir Nick.

    I cannot even for a moment understand how or why anyone connected with LIV would expect to be invited to have anything to do with the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup is a private property of the PGA of America in either a formal or informal partnership with the PGA Tour and of course both European counterparts.

    I am someone who insisted that the national open championships must not bar players simply for having joined LIV. Nor should Augusta bar past Champions or other qualified players based on LIV contracts.

    But they aren’t PGA properties. And in particular when the matches represent something beyond golf, the ugly stench of the Saudi investment fund money should be avoided at all costs.

    And it may well represent a fundamental business judgment on the part of the Ryder Cup, with its own established portfolio of sponsors. Many of whom would want no part of LIV. Who might even bail out of the Ryder Cup altogether if pressed on the choice.

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    • Steve

      Jan 30, 2023 at 1:56 pm

      Hi Chuck, can’t agree with you that they should be allowed to play in the majors – however the rest of your comment I wholeheartedly agree.

      Reply Report comment

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19th Hole

‘You’re a f*****g traffic cone!’ – Brooks Koepka heckles Aaron Ekblad at Florida Panthers game

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3 hours ago

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Mar 27, 2023

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Brooks Koepka is preparing to play in this week’s LIV event in Orlando. While in Florida, the four-time major champion attended a Florida Panthers game.

At the game, Koepka was seen taunting Aaron Ekblad, who was the first overall pick in the draft in 2014, with a traffic cone.

Brooks can be seen in the video yelling, “Ekblad you suck” as well as calling him a “traffic cone” with the prop in hand.

So far this season, Koepka has finished 31st at LIV Mayakoba and 29th at LIV Tucson. He’ll be teeing it up at The Masters next week in search of his 5th major championship.

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19th Hole

‘Never mind the Masters’ – Gary Player explains why he ranks the Masters dead last of all the majors

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7 hours ago

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Mar 27, 2023

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In an interview with Sportsmail, Gary Player spoke about which major championship he believes is the best among them. The 87-year-old won nine major championships, including the Masters three times and The Open Championship three times.

“But never mind the Masters, the Open is by far the greatest tournament on the planet.”

Interestingly, Player ranked the Masters fourth of the four majors.

“I rate the Open at one, the US Open two, PGA three and Augusta four,’ he adds. Four marvelous tournaments.”

When asked why he ranked the Masters after the other three, Player said it was because the others have been around longer.

“It’s the youngest of the majors. The others are steeped in tradition and history, and they still have to catch up. Nothing comes to the top without time.”

Speaking of The Masters, Player also spoke about Rory McIlroy’s quest for the career grand slam, of which he’s still one green jacket short. Player believes McIlroy will win and needs to do so sooner rather than later to cement his spot amongst the greatest players of all time.

‘He’s got the best swing in the world by a mile,’ Player says. ‘He’s won four majors but none since 2014. I think he will win the Masters because the course is made for him. I think if he does that, he’ll go down as one of the greats, but that’s something he has to do.

“I’ve always said my judgment of superstars is they have to win six majors. People these days say anyone who wins is a superstar. No. It’s not easily done, but I believe Rory can.”

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19th Hole

Golf legend says this was the biggest mistake of Tiger’s career

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7 hours ago

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Mar 27, 2023

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At one stage in his career, it looked as if Tiger Woods becoming the record major holder was a formality, but for whatever factors that never materialised.

In an interview with Sportsmail, Gary Player spoke about Tiger Woods and his quest to break Jack Nicklaus’s major championship record, and has his own view on why Tiger never surpassed Jack’s record.

Player, who won nine major championships himself, said that he believes Ben Hogan was the “greatest” golfer he’d ever seen, but Tiger Woods was the most talented.

‘The greatest I ever saw was Ben Hogan,’ he says. ‘He went to war for five years and then had a terrible car accident, so never played in 30 majors. Nobody had a streak like he had (winning his nine majors in the space of 16 starts). If I was a young boy today, I’d watch his swing from 1953 every day.”

‘Tiger Woods was the most talented golfer the planet has ever seen but he made a few bad decisions, which we all do.”

“Having lessons when he won the US Open by 15 shots was inconceivable — if he never went for a lesson, he would have won 20 majors minimum and he would have beat Nicklaus’s record.”

Player is referencing the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, which Woods won by 15 shots. Just two years later, Tiger completely renovated his golf swing, which in retrospect looks as if it may have been a mistake.

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