Nick Faldo was a six-time major winner but not popular. Nasty Nick, they called him, or worse, Nick the (rhymes with Brick).
A plinker in the Funk mold, Faldo quit winning when Tiger and friends started knocking three-irons past his drives. He dumped his longtime swing guru, David Leadbetter. Dumped his second wife for a college golfer who pummeled his Porsche with a nine-iron when he dumped her too. Heh-heh, chortled Brit writers, serves the bugger right. He got the last laugh, morphing into the best golf talker since Johnny Miller.
Says David Feherty, "It's a miracle! He fit right in with us." The two became colleagues last October when Faldo, who had spent three years with ABC, was signed as CBS's lead analyst, replacing Lanny Wadkins. Faldo and Feherty turned pro on the same day in 1976 and played the Euro tour for decades, but they weren't friends.
"I'm not sure Nick had a friend on tour," says Feherty. "I mean, I knew the guy for 30 years and never knew he was funny."
Faldo: "As a player I was head down, blinkers on. Totally focused inside my cocoon. I wish I could have jumped in and out of that cocoon, but I couldn't. Not without losing focus on my golf."
The new Faldo — Nice Nick — was in a pickle last summer as he readied to play the British Open. During the '05 Buick Invitational he had critiqued a lousy shot by Tiger Woods ("a complete fan and miss"), who then froze him out. They hadn't spoken in 18 months when they were paired for the first two rounds. Tiger said he'd be "surprised" if they spoke.
But Faldo had a plan.
"There were bookies offering odds of 25 to 1 that we'd come to blows that day! So I said, 'Tiger, I've got a deal for you.'"
Woods gave him the glacier gaze.
"They've got it 25 to 1 that we'll fight," Faldo said. "Let's take the bet and throw a few punches."
Woods nodded. "I'll put $2 million on it," he said.
"So you win $50 million? O.K., I'll only take 20 percent."
Feud over.
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