Renaissance Man

Nick Faldo runs the rule over modern golf’s key topics, from slow play and course set-up to equipment and Tiger’s World No.1 prospects...

- Michael Weston

It takes something extra special to impress Sir Nick Faldo. This is no great surprise given his achievements as a player: six Majors, over 40 tournament wins, 98 weeks as World No.1, and 11 Ryder Cups. Then there are the 15 years he’s spent in the commentary box. He’sseen it all – and pretty much done it all, too. The modern player hitting the ball 300 yards plus through the air is nothing to get too excited about.

“Back in my day, with persimmon drivers, there were only six to ten of us who were really good drivers of the ball,” says Faldo, whose three Masters titles and three Open Championship victories came between 1987 and 1996.

He’d like to see the size of the driver's face throttled back, which is a topic that sometimes divides opinion. Players who become commentators are occasionally accused of failing to move with the times, yet Faldo merely wants to see everything that’s great about the game being protected.

When we speak, he’s gearing up for the third running of the Major Champions Invitational, a global junior event he created to help identify the next generation of champions. It’s an amateur tournament like no other, with a number of former and current Major Champions mentoring the 36 girls and 36 boys taking part. The passion he has for this is obvious, as it is for the game in general.

How did the Major Champions Invitational come about?