It is incredible to think that, as a 13-year-old watching the 1971 Masters on his parents’ new colour television, Sir Nick Faldo had never even picked up a golf club. Within three years he was a successful British amateur and by the age of 20 he had become the youngest player ever to qualify for the Ryder Cup. 30 years later, and with six Major championships, more than 40 tournament victories and a total of 98 weeks as the world’s number one golfer, Faldo is broadly regarded as the most successful golfer that Britain has ever produced.
Through the creation of Faldo Enterprises, Sir Nick Faldo has also become a prolific success away from the course and is currently more involved with the business of golf than ever before. The list of companies and initiatives already under the Faldo golf umbrella include: his world-renowned golf course design company, Faldo Design, currently involved with over 50 projects on six continents; the Faldo Series, one of the premier programmes for aspiring young golfers; and a number of other projects in which Faldo plays an active role. Faldo has also been causing a stir on the airwaves, rather than fairways, having launched a successful career as a television commentator. Faldo’s natural, insightful presence in the commentary booth has resulted in lead analyst positions for two of the principal American broadcasters of PGA Tour golf – CBS and the Golf Channel.
In a wide-ranging interview, Tilak Malaviya finds out more about the man and the vision driving his golf business enterprise. Excerpts:
Indian Sports News: Who inspired you to play the game and what were your early years like? Who was your golfing role model?
Nick Faldo: My first experience of golf was watching Jack Nicklaus play in the Masters when I was just 13 years old – my Mom and Dad had just bought a colour television and I remember being amazed by the beauty of Augusta. The next day I told my parents that I was going to be a professional golfer. We booked some lessons and I never looked back. Just four or so years later I had turned professional and was winning tournaments so you’d have to say that Mr Nicklaus has had a huge influence on my career right from the very beginning!
ISN: Which Major championship do you cherish the most and do you think you could have won all four Majors?
Nick Faldo: I came close to winning the US Open and the PGA Championship with second place finishes in both so I’d like to think I might have had a chance of claiming all four. It would be impossible to choose a favourite from six Major wins though as they’re all special in their own way.
ISN: You ventured in to golf course design business quite early in your career? Did it come naturally to you?
Nick Faldo: I’m fortunate to have competed in tournaments and championships on some of the greatest golf courses in the world and it’s always been useful to have those experiences to draw upon. In that sense, I think I was well prepared to become a designer particularly when you consider the fact that many of the skills that complement my design work – such as a strategic approach, an eye for detail, visualisation and an appreciation for a variety of golf shots – are the same ones that served me so well as a professional golfer.
ISN: What is your design philosophy and has it changed over time?
Nick Faldo: I don’t think my philosophy has changed really. At Faldo Design we’ve always concentrated on two things – strategy and memorability. I want players to engage with the golf courses that we’ve created, for them to have to think their way round. But I also want it to be an experience that lives long in the memory, one that a player will want to engage with again and again.
ISN: What are the challenges of designing golf courses in virgin territory like India?
Nick Faldo: I don’t know that India could be described as a virgin territory any more but it is certainly a developing golfing nation with great potential. At Faldo Design we’ve always had a pioneering approach to the golf course design process and have already worked in some pretty far-flung places across the world. As a company, we’re very experienced when it comes to working outside of the traditional golfing destinations and we’re much more concerned with the quality of a site rather than the region it’s located in. So much of creating a really great course relies upon the land that you have to work with at the beginning of the project. We’re fortunate enough to have worked with some really great pieces of land and that has resulted in a very diverse portfolio of projects across every continent in the world.
ISN: What are the upcoming projects in India and other part of South East Asia?
Nick Faldo: Most recently we’ve begun detailed design work on a very exciting project at the Lavasa hill city near Pune, where our 18-hole championship-standard golf course will form an integral part of an ambitious new 25,000 acre development. It’s such a great site, very natural with large elevation changes, evocative rocky outcrops and a broad variety of plant-life to incorporate into a design that could set a new benchmark for golf in India. In other parts of South East Asia, we’ve recently begun work on a new project in Cambodia at the Vattanac Resort in Phnom Penh, where we’ll create two new championship courses on a very large site where there is the possibility to lay out two very contrasting courses. We are also working on a project in Vietnam at Laguna Lang Co, where there is real diversity of characteristics for us to play with, including: sand dunes, rice-paddy fields, trees and scrub, wonderful exposed rock formations as well as a section of dramatic coastline. Our routing will visit each of these features over all 18-holes.
ISN: Do you think India is an awakening giant as far as golf course development is concerned?
Nick Faldo: I think it’s safe to say that interest in the sport is on the up in India and it’s a large country with a growing section of the population that might traditionally be considered to be potential golfers. All of that is a great foundation for golf course development and that’s something that we’d love to be a part of at Faldo Design.
ISN: What is your average day like? How much time do you spend with your family and do they assist you in your business?
Nick Faldo: There’s no such thing as an average day for me! With such a diverse collection of business interests and my commentary commitments as well, even reading my schedule is a real art! I tend to be crisscrossing the US during the golf season in my role as the lead analyst for live coverage of the PGA Tour on the Golf Channel and CBS. Then, beyond that, I could be just about anywhere in the world on design trips and tournaments for my global golf development programme the Faldo Series, which my son Matthew has been helping to organise this year. But there’s also time to relax of course and, whenever I have it, I love nothing more than spending time with my family.
ISN: You started the Faldo series in 1996 to help identify and nurture the next generation of champions. Do you think you have achieved your objective?
Nick Faldo: It’s a goal that is constantly ongoing; as we expand, creating more tournaments in even more countries, we’re finding talent across the world and my only hope is that with the continued help of our Major Partners – like the R&A, Mission Hills and ISPS – we can keep on offering more opportunities to more young golfers year on year. Having said that, there are a number of players that have already come through the Faldo Series and are now successful professionals, including European and PGA Tour winners Nick Dougherty and Rory McIlroy, and Major winner Ya Ni Tseng.
ISN: Rashid Khan has done well in the Faldo Series. Do you think he is a future star in the making?
Nick Faldo: The Faldo Series combines golf-specific education on every aspect of the sport with top-level competition at some of the world’s best golfing venues and Rashid has certainly showed that he can thrive within that environment. With the right application, he has every chance of going on to a successful career as a professional but it is very much down to him as to how far he can really go. As with any of the players on the Faldo Series, the opportunities that we create can only offer them so much. Beyond that it’s up to the individual to find the determination to succeed and to keep pushing themselves on to be the best that they possibly can.
ISN: What is your suggestion to budding golfers?
Nick Faldo: Practice, practice, practice!
ISN: What are your future business plans?
Nick Faldo: Over the last year or so we’ve been working on expanding our golf teaching facilities through Faldo Academies, an extension of the Faldo Institutes that already exist in the US. We’ve opened our first academy at the Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland and are due to open another at Katameya Dunes in Egypt. We’re also very excited to be bringing a bespoke, state-of-the-art training facility to India at Lavasa near Pune where players can learn the Faldo Methodology of golf coaching.Beyond that, I hope to continue expanding the Faldo Series and creating more exciting golfing experiences across the world with Faldo Design.
