Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104070014
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AUGUSTA, GA. LENGTH: Medium
No one has won the Masters three times in a row.
Faldo has two in a row.
No one has won the Grand Slam of golf.
Faldo has dreams.
Not since the glory days of Jack Nicklaus has one man so dominated conversation before the Masters.
Through it all, the tall Englishman with the elegant swing and steadiest of games remains a calm craftsman going about his business.
"I don't think of it as a third Masters," Faldo said. "I'm trying to approach it as a major, any major."
It is a measure of Faldo's present stature in the game - and the level of his confidence - that he has his sights set on more than just a third straight Masters.
"My goal is to try to win more majors," he said. "Just keep trying. I'm anxious to see what is in store."
He will find out beginning Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club, where 88 of the world's finer players - 69 Americans and 19 foreigners - tee off in the first of the year's four major tests.
Faldo made a run at all the majors last year. He won the Masters in a playoff victory over Ray Floyd, missed making a playoff at the U.S. Open when a birdie putt on the last hole lipped the cup, and won the British Open for the second time.
Faldo is approaching this Masters with a single-minded intensity reminiscent of the young Nicklaus - focusing on the majors to the exclusion of all else.
Just as Nicklaus did, he has reduced his playing schedule and built it around the Grand Slam tournaments. He is giving himself every chance.
"I've won some [majors] now. I know how to do it. I'm on a roll. I want to try to win more," said Faldo, 33 years old and in the prime of his career.
After closing his 1990 season with a victory in the Hong Kong Open in December, Faldo took a two-month break from competition and granted only one television and one newspaper interview.
He spent time with his family.
He gained about 10 pounds and says he has benefited from an exercise program designed to combat tendinitis in his wrists and elbows.
"I'm a lot stronger," said Faldo, carrying about 210 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame. "I'm generating more speed in my shoulders and more resistence in my legs, and I feel as though I'm hitting the ball farther."
He came to the United States in March and spent a week of intensive work with his teacher, David Leadbetter, in Florida before beginning a series of three tournaments leading up to Augusta.
The preparation ends this week.
"I'm ready to get out there and get on with it," Faldo said.
Some of his chief opposition can be expected from the other members of what Faldo calls "the Big Six," the men who have dominated European - and world - golf in recent years and formed the nucleus of Europe's last three successful Ryder Cup teams.
Faldo, Seve Ballesteros of Spain, Sandy Lyle of Scotland and Bernhard Langer of Germany have accounted for five of the past seven British Open titles and five of the past eight Masters victories.
However, it is the other two members of the Big Six, Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain and Ian Woosnam of Wales, who could form the greatest threat.
Olazabal scored a record-breaking victory in the World Series of Golf last fall and Woosnam, a two-time winner of the European Order of Merit, was a recent winner in New Orleans.
Australian Greg Norman, who has come so close so often in the Masters, has not played particularly well since he was destroyed 67-76 in a head-to-head third-round confrontation with Faldo in last year's British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews.
Nicklaus, 51, and Tom Watson, 41, have had moments of strong play early this year, but they must become more consistent on the greens if they are to be a factor.
Paul Azinger and Rocco Mediate have been the most consistent performers this season and must be ranked as the most prominent contenders from the United States.
by CNB