Nick Faldo has been chosen to captain the European Ryder Cup team for the 37th Ryder Cup matches at Valhalla Golf Club in 2008. If you want to know what exactly the captain does read our article outlining his roles and responsibilites. Nick will be hoping to lead the European team to a record 4th victory in a row.
Biography
Nick Faldo is a British golfer. Born in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire England on 18th July in 1957. Nick has had a colourful personal life (which we’ll leave to the tabloid press). He turned professional in 1976 and is one of Europes most sucessful golfers and has notched up over 42 titles .
Faldo first played on a Ryder Cup Team in 1977 at the age of 21 and then subsequently in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997. So in terms of Ryder Cup experience – he’s got it!
Ryder Cup 2008
Nick Faldo is the non playing captain for the European Team who will be defending their title in the US in 2008. They will most likely be favorites to retain the title if the results of the 36th Ryder Cup are anything to go by. Despite the US players dominance on the tour they seem unable to shine in the Matchplay format of the Ryder Cup. Nick will be hoping this is someting his US counterpart will fail to crack in the runup to the 2008 event.
Ryder Cup Team Selection
The European Team will be selected on the basis of player performance.
Qualification for one of the 10 automatic places is based on points earned through competition however two events are used for selection: The Ryder Cup World Points List and the European Points List.
The Ryder Cup World Points List is comprised of Official World Golf Ranking points won by a European Tour Member from each tournament in which he participates in the 12 months preceding the competition.
The second league at which points can be earned is The Ryder Cup European Points List. This list is comprised of points (1 point = 1 euro) earned by a European Tour Member from all officially sanctioned events counting towards The European Tour Order of Merit in the same period.
The final team will comprise the leading five players from The Ryder Cup World Points list and the top five players from the Ryder Cup European Points List (not already qualified through the Ryder Cup World Points list).
As the European Team Captain Nick Faldo will pick two players on the basis of who he feels can add to the skills of the team.
Technorati tags ryder cup, golf, ryder cup valhalla, Nick Faldo
Tags: captain, golf, nick-faldo, ryder-cup, valhalla
[…] Paul Azinger is widely rumoured to have been selected to captain the US for the 37th Ryder Cup in Valhalla in 2008. Having represented his country in four times in the Ryder Cup, Azinger has a 5-7-3 record. He was never beaten in a singles match and bested both Ballesteros and Olazabal. Azinger was born in Holyoke on Jan 6th 1960 and he turned professional in 1981. His career coincided with that of Nick Faldo and as well as sharing the ABC Sports commentary box for the last 2 years they have met in several epic matches including 4 Ryder Cup matches. The US will be hoping that his record of 2 wins and 2 draws against Faldo in Ryder cup matches is auspicious and that his captaincy can herald an new era for the American Ryder Cup team. Having been humiliated by the Europeans in the last 3 matches the US really need a shot in the arm. Will Azinger be able to motivate the US players to bring their A game in 2008? […]
[…] Nick Faldo was the last golfer to win the award back in his hey day as a golfer in 1989. […]
it is about time the media got behind Nick Faldo [without a knife in there hand] and supported him instead of playing Mongomerie against him if the committee had wanted Montgomerie to play a major role they would have chosen him as to comments on Mongomeries behavior it is a known fact that he can be huffy if he is not in the lime light and whilst he did win his single match at the sevi cup he did not win any other point nor was his the first single point up on the board good luck Nick
Faldo is not a good Captain, he is so far up himself, and he was my hero for years and as Jack was his inspiration he was mine, I won 4 matchplay titles at my club in 8 years following his lead.
Now he is even more aloof, so much so he will not sign the offical Ryder Cup print commemorating this years Match, Seve, Torrance, Langer, James, Woosy have all signed it previously and for a collector of these limited edition, signed prints, this is a big Faux Pas, Yov’e lost the plot Nick, this is about the fans, not you.
Nick Faldo is the best golfer ENGLAND ever produced, so stop refering to him as a “european”. He worked his socks off to make himself great at what he did. What other British golfer has achieved such success? Carol
I really hope that Nick makes a good job of communicating to players who do not end up as a ‘Captain’s pick’ but were in the running. This is a hugely difficult thing to do well and he needs to get it right. Speak to them personally. Texting or leaving voice messages will not do. Make sure nobody hears it in the wrong way or wrong order.Learn from past Captains who have got this wrong.This will get the captaincy off to a good or bad start. Good luck Nick!
Nick will make a great captain, but he will be tough on those who for some reason are deemed to be slackers. He has plenty of choice, lots of young men coming along with great skill and the right attitude. Though some of these seemed to have gone off the boil just when they needed to show they had the belief and resilience to be valued team members. This gives the Captain an opportunity to take another look at experienced former winners like Darren Clarke and triple winning Paul McGinley, both of whom are playing great stuff at just the right time. I am afraid, and very sorry, to say Monty, with his increasingly erratic behaviour and poor form would be an irritant to Faldo and should be left out for this tough challenge. Jon Hurley.
nick, I wish your team every success. However I think you made a bad decision in picking Poulter(no wins this year)over Clarke (2 wins). For a man of your standing in the game to do this beggers belief. Is ther some personal needle? If you asked any American team player who would they NOT want to see on the first tee of these two, what answer would you get?I know. Do you? I met you in Portmarnock in 1988. I was the only person in Ireland in a national paper competition to forecast your win in the 87 Open. I won a handsome video camera and presented you with 2 Waterford brandy balloons. Despite my irritation I,nevertheless, hope you can fill them in celebration of another European win. But you have erred! Regards, Brian V Mc Kenna Sutton Golf Club Dublin
Ok, to all those who supported Faldo, what do you think of him now that he has stabbed Clarke in the back? Darren answered Europe’s call 2 years ago after the death of his wife then played himself into contention this time around with 2 superb tournament wins but Faldo has played the Saint George card and picked two underperforming pretentious wasters who care more about the clothes they wear than their golf and in the process has alientated the best players on his team. Europe will lose the Ryder cup and Faldo will have no-one to blame but himself. I was a fan of Faldo’s as a kid and cheered when he was named captain but he has disgusted me this week. Shame on you.
I used to be a big fan of Faldo in his playing years but I think he made a huge mistake in Poulter and Casey. No dis-repect to them. They are both good golfers but Clarke and the young german guy Martin Kaymer should have been the picks. I wonder if his picks has anything to do with the fact that both Poulter & Casey spend a lot of their time in the U.S. ?? I think the U.S. team will win this time around and the main reason will be that Faldo is an arrogant asshole who wants it all his own way.
Patrick Norris – Holland
p.s.
What happened to his would be assistant Paul Mcginley ??
Greatings from germanyHow can we get
an autographed picture from Mr. Nick Faldo ??
Andreas Demme
Ines Ajer
i think nick faldo demonstrated everything that he is about in the opening ceremony last night; he is an arrogant, selfish, ignorant idiot with no class. What he said to mcdowell on stage was a disgrace and his comment to Harrington about potatoes was pathetic. He went on to to make many more mistakes and signed of with the classic “I’m Nick Faldo, an 11 time ryder cupper….”, as big an embarressment as i’ve ever witnessed. I’m still not sure that i want Europe to win, that’s the impact Faldo has had on me on others, quite the captain!!!
At least i’ll take some great consolation now if Europe lose – could we have picked a worse Captain, what an ignoramus!
Nick, You are a class act. Hated to see you lose but your picks were right on. Also love to watch you as commentator. Saw you at Crooked Stick and you’ve got to have the uglyest clubs with all the leaded tape I’ve ever seen Ha Ha. Great job eventhough you lost. Ed Calvert-Indianapolis, indiana
The song has ended ( Its all about me). I`m sure the “I” will now become the “we” since they`ve lost. Isn`t funny how someone who was a winner can be such a loser.
Hi,
My name is Andy and I live near London. I only watched some of sunday’s coverage as I had other events that I wanted go to, which included Premier League football and Rugby Union. I am not a big Ryder cup fan so the result means nothing to me. An article in one of today’s national papers, from a jounalist I respect, listed some of the following observations about Captain Faldo.
Never in the history of the Ryder cup can a contest be driven so directly by personalities of the opposing captains. This was the Nick n Zinger show from start to finish. The two captains hate each other, hardly in the spirit of the cup and what Mr. Ryder set out to achieve. Azinger wanted the scalp of a six time major winner, something that has always riled him and he got it as captain of the winning team.
Nick Faldo made a huge mistake by putting his best players last, something that previous captains have already ridiculed, including Jacklin, Gallager and Woosnam.
His speech was embarassing and he seemed unable to forget his past days as a player often comparing some of his team to his achievments in his hey day. He said that he was sorry that he had so many youngsters on the team because they would not have seen him when he was playing at his best. Faldo’s strategy seemed to revolve around pulling stupid faces, cracking jokes that only he thought were funny and proving to be incapable of talking to the media. If you were a player, would he inspire you? No. Why did he introduce his family one by one? He was more concerned about satisfying his own ego. After all the troubles with Ireland and Northern Ireland, how could he ask McDowell, which country did he want to represent, he’d forgotten!
Azinger’s stroke of genious allowed him to have four wild cards that he could mould his team around. Faldo had to choose from Poulter, Mongomerie, Clarke and Casey, If he had been fit, the list would also have included Luke Donald, crazy!
This was street fighting not statesmanship and one wonders how so many speakers could mention, fairness, freindship, respect and a sense of continuing the values of Sam Ryder, did they all get carried away or were thay all two faced faced?
Andy.