Sir Nick Faldo waves a teary goodbye to Muirfield
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Sir Nick Faldo says he may be tempted to play one more Open at St Andrews in two years time.
Having made an emotional return to the scene of his 1987 and 1992 Open triumphs at Muirfield, Faldo could do the same at St Andrews, where he captured the Claret Jug in 1990.
“I’m not ruling it out, but it’s slim. Who knows? At least I have the opportunity, so I will review it. Getting a picture on the Swilcan Bridge would be nice. I could just run out anytime – middle of play! Walk out, put the bag down! That might be more enjoyable and I might get a better kick out of doing that!
“But this is where it started with the Opens. Maybe this is the right place to end it. We will see.”
And Faldo, who shot 79 and 78 for a +15 total to miss the cut, said he still enjoyed the whole Open, playing alongside Fred Couples and Tom Watson, as he came out of retirement and back on Tour.
“It’s been grinding fun. The whole experience was great and I’ve loved it. I came up here on Sunday morning, like the good old days, as if I was trying to win, and played lots of practice rounds. I played with Ernie, with Rosey, Stenson, so that was fun. And I was still able to try my best, which is cool.
“At least I can hit it out there sometimes. I got three drives past Freddie, in the last 36! I was going for these kind of shots again – but if you’re going to do it again, you have to have some sort of short game, some sort of belief in your putting. It was brutal out there, but I hit some good shots, so all in all I was quite pleased. Coming up the last with Tom was a wonderful highlight.”
And when asked who he thought might win The Open, Faldo said: “I don’t know. A lot is going to happen because it’s the rub of the greens. It’s harsh out there. You can hit really good shots and they fall off and you see them wandering around. If it stays like this, these greens get burnt to a crisp; something dramatic is going to happen.
“This golf course is going to cost more guys the chance than the one guy who is going to come through. I think we’re going to see half a dozen guys come off scratching their heads. It’s going to be severe but they all had an opportunity.”
