Golf: Price takes time out to explain winning: Reticent Faldo fails to match his in-form rival in both words and deeds. Tim Glover reports from Fort Lauderdale

THE scenario of Nick Price winning and Nick Faldo making a hurried departure is becoming increasingly familiar. After winning the Honda Classic at Weston Hills here, Price spent at least an hour talking about it. Faldo spent all of five seconds explaining what went wrong with his game after he had finished with a 76.

'I played great but my putting screwed me completely,' Faldo said, adding that he had a plane to catch. Price said that he played it almost exactly as he wanted to, adding that he had his own plane to catch. There is an uncanny resemblance between Price and Faldo but not, at the moment, in the way they play. They simply look alike. In the final round, Price was 10 strokes better than Faldo, who had a seven at the seventh and a seven at the 13th. They amounted to a double bogey and a triple bogey, and on both holes he drove into water. It was not just his putter that was off line.

'If you're tentative on these greens, you're history,' David Leadbetter said at the beginning of the week. Leadbetter's main teaching academy is at Orlando in Florida. Price, who lives in Orlando, is a Leadbetter client, as is Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Craig Parry and Ian Woosnam. Woosnam, like Faldo, finished with a 76 while Sandy Lyle, almost unique in not consulting Leadbetter, shot 66 in the final round for a one-under-par

aggregate.

Lyle's driving was particularly impressive and this week he continues his build-up to the Masters at Augusta by playing in the Nestle Invitational at Bay Hill, also in Florida.

'I've been playing better than I've been scoring,' Lyle, the Masters champion in 1988, said. 'This time I didn't do anything silly.' Lyle, whose joint ninth place won him dollars 27,500 ( pounds 18,750), went out in 33, came back in 33.

The 37-year-old Price, who matched Lyle's 66 in the fourth round, achieved his 12th victory in 18 months since winning the US PGA Championship. That does not include his win in Brunei last month at the Sultan's 18-hole tournament. Price, the leading money winner on the US Tour last year, won dollars 150,000 in Brunei and on Sunday his reward was pounds 135,000.

Price won his first US Tour event in 1983 and his second in 1991 but since then he has been successful enough, with official earnings of over dollars 5.4m, to pass Jack Nicklaus in the all- time money list. In addition to Leadbetter, Price has Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist, in his corner.

John Daly, who has also worked with Rotella, finished joint fourth with, among others, Langer, whom he partnered in the final round. Both shot 68. 'That's the first time he's never beaten me,' Daly said. 'It was a real treat playing with him. The thing about a guy like Langer is that you know he's going to be on the leaderboard, and if you're close to him you know you're playing good.'

Outside of winning, Daly's comeback, following a three- month suspension and 15 alcohol-free months, could hardly have been more impressive. 'The tour needs John Daly,' Price said. 'I wish I could draw as much attention. He's got the world at his fingertips. He can do anything. He's got talents that we've all dreamt of. He hits his one-iron as far as I hit my driver. I just hope he channels it in the right way and learns from his mistakes. Potentially he's a world beater. He's 10 years younger than I am and as most of us are not at our best until the mid-thirties, he's got 15 good years ahead of him.'

Allowances are already being made for Daly, who attracted a huge gallery on Sunday. The press room was a no- smoking area but when Daly, a four packets a day man, lit up nobody objected. When he plays in the Murphy's Irish Open at the Nicklaus-designed Mount Juliet course in the summer, all leave for the Gardai will be cancelled.

HONDA CLASSIC (Fort Lauderdale, Fla) Leading final scores (US unless stated): 276 N Price (Zim) 70 67 73 66. 277 C Parry (Aus) 68 73 69 67. 278 B Chamblee 67 68 72 71. 280 J Daly 69 70 73 68, B Langer (Ger) 67 72 73 68, C Strange 71 67 72 70, D Love 68 71 70 71. 282 D Edwards 70 72 69 71. 283 S Lyle (GB) 71 74 72 66; T Kite 71 72 71 69; J Gallagher 68 71 74 70; H Sutton 71 72 70 70; B Fleisher 68 73 70 72. Selected: 289 N Faldo (GB) 70 70 73 76. 291 I Woosnam (GB) 72 71 72 76.