Nick Faldo: The ultimate driven man finally finds a way to welcome life's little diversions

The fairways are not so constricting now for a champion enjoying middle-aged spread

It is oddly coincidental not only that two of Europe's greatest golfers were born just months apart but also that Seve Ballesteros celebrates his birthday at the time of the US Masters and Nick Faldo around the Open Championship. Faldo will no doubt be serenaded by the gallery as he steps up to the first tee on the first day of this year's Championship a week on Thursday at Muirfield, where he won two of his three Open crowns. The pair will then both be 45 but, in what is meant to be a sporting dotage, could not be on more divergent paths. While Faldo finished fifth in last month's US Open at Bethpage, Ballesteros was disqualified from the Irish Open last week after taking a 12 at the final hole.

"I feel for the guy," Faldo said. "We have been competitors and have massive respect for each other. I wish I could put my arm round him and say, 'Seve, make a decision. Go away to a tropical island, as I call it, and have three months with a coach and the whole team and put yourself together and at the end of it, make a decision. If you've got a game go out and play, if you haven't, say adios, thank you'.

"It is horrible to see a great man who's gone. He was awesome. I learnt from him. His brother would say, 'He may hit it everywhere but he has the biggest heart out there.' The poor guy does not have a heart any more. By that I mean, he's down on himself. For his sake, he needs to look at the positives in his life and head towards those, head for the things that are fun. Playing tournament golf cannot be fun for him."

Fun for Faldo these days extends from fishing to the showbiz parties of Elton John and the Beckhams to pottering around the garden of the Old Windsor home he shares with his third wife, Valerie. "I'm working on adding a couple of ponds. There is a formal pond already and another the size of a green under some huge willow trees. I've built a barbecue deck by it but I haven't been able to christen it thanks to the British weather.

"Life is always a mad rush but the reason you rush is always to get home. That's still the No 1. I'll cut corners across countries and continents like you wouldn't believe just to get home. Having a week at home is still the nicest thing out there. When we moved in last May, it was the first time I'd spent a whole month under the same roof for, I can't remember when, maybe 10 years. It catches up with you."

Faldo is talking in the elegant surroundings of the Wentworth clubhouse, revealing how putting his life in order off the course has enabled him still to be competitive on it. He is here only because a bout of gastroenteritis kept him in bed for two days and out of the European Open in Ireland. A waiter offers coffee and a bacon sandwich but they are rejected for a mint tea instead.

He is on a new diet – one component is porridge, which will be in plentiful supply for the next fortnight at Loch Lomond and Muirfield – set up by Mary Mackay, a physiotherapist to Her Majesty. Anthony Jacobowski, a chiropractor, and the former tour player Jeremy Bennett are also among "friends" Faldo referred to at Bethpage who have put him back on the right track. Fanny Sunesson, his faithful caddie, is another, plus Kjell Enhager, the Swedish coach and sports psychologist.

Off course there is, naturally, Valerie, a Swiss PR consultant, and his new business adviser, Simon Crane of World Sports Marketing. "The three of us have been talking quietly for 15 months, building a masterplan for the business side of things. That has relieved a lot of tension. My mind was like a scattergun before, worrying about business, relationships. There were too many negatives and too much to deal with. It has taken a while but the wheels are about to turn."

The result, the Faldo Golf Company, is about providing "the total service to golf", Faldo says. That means a Faldo-designed course, a Faldo Institute to provide teaching, plus management, restaurants – the first of his Jug and Jacket chain will open in St Andrews next spring – even a branded spa. "The day when someone phones up and says we'll take the whole package is the day we've cracked it," he said. "It's taken a lot of hard work by everyone at WSM but the ideas seem to be being well received." If it is an ambitious plan, there will also be a laudable ethos. "The facilities should be inclusive, for the whole family."

Ironically, the six-time major champion says this moments after he is politely asked to leave a room which had appeared empty when we arrived but was needed for a company golf day at the famous Surrey course. We moved to the members' lounge upstairs.

Faldo's new, media-friendly openness is in stark contrast to earlier days in his career and to some appears merely a necessity to help the business and his ambitions as Ryder Cup captain for 2004. But it also suggests he is happier fitting together more of life's jigsaw.

"I was talking to Kjell this week and the big word is 'balance'. You have to have balance in your life, in your body, in your golf swing, very important word. Ten years ago I went to McLaren's headquarters and was shown round by Ron Dennis. I asked what's the most important part of your team? He said balance. Balance in the people, balance in the car. That is what I am now managing to get in my life. I think that is why I am giving myself the chance to go and play a lot better.

"To be honest this was a make or break year on the course for me. I was very down and wasn't enjoying the way I was playing and didn't enjoy being out there. I certainly don't have to be out there playing mediocre. Going from being a winner to not being able to do that is bad enough. Dealing with that has been important. You have to accept you are not the same golfer and just go out and play for enjoyment. I started this season with a couple of goals, to enjoy the weeks regardless of where I finished, and to get the old tempo back in my swing. I've worked on making everything, mentally, physically and technically, just that little bit better. It's not working harder, but with more focus."

The reward came at Bethpage on a brutal course of over 7,200 yards which few thought Faldo could manage. "It was a daunting golf course but it played into my hands. The key thing was patience. Even if I was just off a fairway, you had to take your punishment, chop it out, see if you could make a four. If you couldn't, make sure you made a five and not a six. You could lose your head."

Faldo's 66 in the third round was the low score of the tournament. "You imagine the odds on bloody me shooting the lowest round of the week, they would have been giving you 500-1. I was really chuffed with that. To get a reward like that was great and motivated me to keep pushing now for Muirfield. I'm really looking forward to going back."

Claiming those little tin cups he used to pick up regularly until the LA Open in 1997 is still a goal. "I would love to win again. I said to Fanny after Bethpage, 'If I play like that I can win.' I just need to get myself a couple of more notches up on the leaderboard. I need to play an event running with the lead and see how it all goes."

There may not be long left for Faldo the player, however. The Senior Tour is not an option: "Absolutely not, no way. I'm not going to pack a suitcase and go on tour again." Nor is a seat in a television commentary box. "It's not really me." But as well as his passion for course designing – a new links, possibly in Ireland, remains uppermost in his dreams – there is his work helping with the development of the game with his Junior Series. "At first the reaction was 'who are this lot?' but we have broken down a lot of barriers. There are lots of ideas to expand the programme and it will help having our own academies at Brocket Hall and Burhill so they can come and practise under our wing."

Faldo can see himself taking on more one-to-one coaching in the future and already has a close relationship with the first Junior Series winner, Nick Dougherty. The 20-year-old has already made a favourable impression in his rookie season on tour, but has also managed to attract the nickname of "George", as in Best, from the caddies.

"I heard that," said Faldo, "and I was a bit, 'oh'. I'll have to give him a good rollicking. I love playing with the kids because it keeps me on my toes. All I hope they appreciate is that I've done all the zillions of hours testing and finding things out and I can pass on the things that if you keep working on them, not get sidetracked by anything else, they'll get you through."

If Faldo was once the dominant force in his sport, Tiger Woods is now to a far greater extent. "It's his total package. It looks like he is 20 to 30 per cent better in all three areas, mental, physical and technical. He has fewer weaknesses than anyone, ever, without a doubt."

While Woods appears to win at will, only three times, defending the Masters in 1990, at St Andrews the same year and in 1992 at Muirfield, does Faldo recall starting the week with the intention of winning, "not just bowling up and see what happens. That's the ability the best players have, not just playing well at the right time but making it happen."

As for suggestions those chasing the Tiger are not really trying, Faldo does not buy it. "I don't think that is the right analysis. He has really shaken up a lot of guys' apple carts. They either have to be inspired by the way he is doing things, or you say 'sod it, this is my game plan I'm sticking to it'.

"But there must be a little nagging doubt in some of their minds, have they got it all? Have they got all the equipment? If they are going to hit a dozen bad shots a week, Tiger has probably got it down to half a dozen. They may be mentally good, but Tiger is better. He has turned up the volume. He's taken everything to a new level. He probably believes he is performing at 80 per cent and can improve this, that and the other.

"I was amazed, on the practice ground, Steve [Williams, his caddie] hardly says a word. Butch [Harmon, his coach] doesn't say a word. He comes to the bag, they check something and then he hits balls again and they just stand there. I've only watched a couple of times but it has always been total silence. I would have thought even Butch would say, 'that looks nice'. No, he doesn't say a word. Tiger is so disciplined. I believe he starts a diet a month before an event. Nobody gets in his way before or during the week." Remind you of anyone?

Biography: Nick Faldo

Nick Faldo

Born: 18 July 1957, Welwyn Garden City.

Height: 6ft 3in.

Lives: Old Windsor, Berkshire.

Married: to Valerie, three children from a previous marriage.

Turned professional: 1976.

Major victories: (6) The Open (1987, '90, '92). US Masters (1989, '90, '96).

European Tour wins: 30. US Tour wins: 4.

European Order of Merit: 1st (1983, '92).

Ryder Cup participation: (11) 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997.

Also: In 1992 became the first player to earn over £1m in a season. Won England's first World Cup of Golf with David Carter in 1998.