Golf: Falling for Faldo's edge

`The difference is how much you believe in yourself. Nick believes more than anyone else'; Andy Farrell hears tributes to the true grit of a Master of golf's demands

There is only one thing you need to do to win a golf tournament, but two ways of doing it. The red, under-par figures must more than compensate for the mistakes; so either you maximise the birdies and eagles, or you minimise the mistakes.

Plan A is that favoured by Greg Norman. This is fine for winning regular tour events; the Australian has won more than 70 worldwide. Plan B is that adopted by Britain's Nick Faldo. This is how major championships are won. Faldo, in comparison with Norman, has won only 38 times and some weeks, in the Lowscoringville Open, just gets left behind. But the figures that matter are Faldo's six major championships to Norman's two (and eight second places).

Head-to-head it is beginning to look like no contest. At the Doral Ryder Open last year, Norman almost hit a scoreboard floating 40 yards left of the green in a lake when he needed a par to tie Faldo.

In 1992, Norman shot a final round 63 in the Johnnie Walker World Championship, but Faldo still won in the play-offs that followed. At Sandwich in 1993, Norman's closing 64 was enough to win his second British Open, but interestingly he was playing that day with Bernhard Langer, not Faldo.

At St Andrews in 1990, in their third-round clash, the Englishman won 67-76, and then came last Sunday at Augusta. The bare figures are frightening enough. Faldo 67, Norman 78, from six ahead to five behind. Not even Faldo could bear to watch.

His sympathy for Norman was in contrast to the French Open in 1988, when his only words to a distraught Denis Durnian were: "There's a lesson then for you." Durnian, leading by four going into the last round, had shot a 74 to Faldo's 68.

"I wasn't playing with Nick, so I wasn't intimidated by him. I was just inexperienced and I started thinking about my winner's speech when I was leading by two playing the 17th. I had a double bogey and Nick eagled the last," recalled Durnian, who now runs a successful golf school in Stockport and is preparing to join the seniors' tour in four years time.

"But there's no question that if Norman had not been playing with Nick on Sunday, there would not have been a problem. It would have been a different story. The way Nick played was faultless. He just ground Norman into the dust. Nothing went right for Greg and he must have been brain-dead."

Durnian continued: "As far as ability goes, Nick is what Jack Nicklaus used to be. People fear him. He definitely has the fear factor, as Seve had over a lot of people and Nicklaus did before him. Faldo is the man that everybody looks towards to see what he is doing. He has the hoodoo factor over Greg."

Nicklaus, who played with Faldo in the final round of the 1990 Masters as Faldo got into a play-off against Ray Floyd, agrees. "The difference between winning and losing is how much you believe in yourself when you are coming down the stretch, and I think Faldo believes in himself more than anybody.

"Usually, the other players know you believe in yourself. That's the thing I had throughout most of my career. The guys knew I could play. And they knew I knew that I could finish. And they didn't know if they could or not. Of course, they didn't know I wasn't really sure. But as long as they think you carry that feeling, you have an edge."

Faldo's six majors make him the leader of his generation, and put him joint 11th on the all-time list behind Nicklaus's 18. Each of his major wins has been characterised by his ability to force others to make mistakes: Paul Azinger at Muirfield in 1987 after his own round of 18 pars; Scott Hoch and Floyd in play-offs at Augusta in 1989 and 1990; John Cook missing a tiny putt at 17 and the green at 18 at Muirfield in 1992; plus the Norman collapses.

"He has intimidated people into giving him majors," Durnian said. "People call him lucky but it is the reward for making so few mistakes and his ability to hit the golf shot he needs to. The three-iron at the last at Muirfield in 1992 was frighteningly good. Not many people can hit a shot like that under pressure, or the two-iron at the 13th at Augusta last Sunday."

Belying his mechanical-man image, Faldo has the ability to hit magnificent "feel" shots under pressure better than anyone. With precise course management required in the Masters final round, Faldo hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation; Norman, the world No 1, managed eight.

"When conditions are most demanding," said Faldo's coach, David Leadbetter, "and the pressure is greatest, his game and technique and toughness will come to the fore. As good as his swing is, his grit is greater."