Faldo hopes to pass his winning ways on to a new Ryder Cup generation

ALTHOUGH it would be an exaggeration to paint him as the Pied Piper of Valhalla, there's little doubt that the refrain emanating from Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo over the next three weeks will resonate more sweetly among a younger generation of European golfers than it did with his own contemporaries.

During a remarkable playing career, when he won six major titles and earned a deserved reputation as Britain's most successful ever golfer, even Faldo himself now acknowledges that he was a self-absorbed champion. "I was a selfish so-and-so, if you like," he recalled. "My great hero was Bjorn Borg and that's how I believed I had to be. I was totally focused."

If some of his peers saw him as aloof and self-obsessed, Europe's young guns look up to the captain as a towering, inspirational figure. While Faldo, 51, chose to distance himself from his playing rivals, he relishes helping young golfers make the most of their ability.

Asked how his captaincy might stand out, Faldo replied: "I want to share with them my experience. There are things I can tell them to expect, which if they don't know about, may catch them off guard."

Of course, Faldo won't have a teacher-pupil relationship with every member of the side in Louisville from 19-21 September. But he's already indicated that the uniforms have been designed "with the youngsters in mind" while Nicko McBrain, the drummer with Iron Maiden, and DJ Spooney will assist with music. Knowing he can't turn back the clock and re-live his early career with the benefit of decades of knowledge and experience, Faldo views the Ryder Cup as an opportunity "to pass on all that information to the next generation".

As the captain prepares to name his two picks for the match against the USA in Kentucky next month on a flying visit to Gleneagles tomorrow, Nick Dougherty, who came through the ranks of the Faldo junior series, believes his towering status in the game ensures Europe start with an edge in Louisville.

Look at the two captains going into next month's match, and Nick is one of the greatest golfers ever," enthused Dougherty in Perthshire this week. "He's a six time major winner and it says a lot that our captain has achieved so much more in the game than their's. Not that Zinger (Paul Azinger] isn't a fantastic player too. But if you compare the two careers, it's quite one-sided. I think it will be a big help for our guys to know that when they go to the Ryder Cup, things usually work out for Nick.

You can't be as successful as Nick has been in his career without things going your way. He's someone who seems to make the right decision at the right time. It fills you with confidence to know that good things happen to Nick Faldo.

Also, his expertise leaves nothing to chance. I know from my own relationship with him that he's so detailed in the way he prepares. He's so in depth about tournaments. When he sat down with me before the Masters, we chatted for something like two or three hours about the golf course at Augusta. It was a nice gesture from him in the first place, but to go into it in so much detail was incredible. He'll be exactly the same at the Ryder Cup. There will be no stone left unturned.

He's a very passionate man. Nick had a reputation as a player, but people see a different side of him now. Some people are wary of how real that change is. But, in my experience, Nick Faldo is a passionate person and an exciting one. He will get stuck in and do what he has to do to win the Ryder Cup."

The notion that Faldo the Ryder Cup captain, course designer and TV commentator is a different character from the complex sportsman who divided opinion as a player isn't shared by everyone. Earlier this year, it was Azinger who made the point that there were two Nick Faldos. As a player who won six major titles as well as more Ryder Cup points than anyone else, Faldo was viewed by his peers as arrogant. Since becoming a TV commentator, the Englishman had re-invented himself as a more genial observer of the game.

According to Azinger, who never denied the remarks but claimed they were given prominence out of context, his opposite number was at a stage in life when he wanted to re-invent himself. "He is at a fork in the road and is who he is and was who he was. Some people buy it and some don't."

Azinger's observation that the young Faldo was a "p***k" despised by all pros of his own generation was a gratuitous observation which would have been better left unsaid. But it didn't undermine the veracity of the thesis that trying to grapple with Faldo's personality is like trying to unpick a paradox.

The insensitive side of Faldo, on the one hand, was so indifferent to public opinion that when he won the Open at Muirfield in 1992 he thanked his critics "from the heart of my bottom". On the other, no one has done more to foster the growth of junior golf in Britain than him. Like Ben Hogan before him, Faldo was a cold-blooded golfer who could also be an ice-man off the course.

In some respects, leading Europe against the USA at Valhalla, 31 years after making his debut in the match as a 20-year-old at Lytham under the captaincy of Brian Huggett – he won three points out of three, twice partnering Peter Oosterhuis to victory in foursomes and fourballs, as well as defeating Tom Watson in singles – will add an element of symmetry to Faldo's career.

Not that Faldo's reputation will be in any way defined by the outcome of the match. As Bernard Gallacher, a former captain who favoured the Englishman with wild cards, remembered: "I never felt Nick was a real team player but I accepted it as a captain because he gave you points. He wasn't a player like Seve (Ballesteros] who used to rule the team meetings, be out on course rooting for the players and would play with anybody the captain wanted him to play with. Nick always wanted to play with the best player."

That self-serving drive, which saw him barely speak to partner David Gilford in 1991 at Kiawah, earned Faldo a record 25 points in 11 appearances against the Americans but inevitably raised a few questions about his talent for leading others. Yet, as Sam Torrance, Europe's leader at the Belfry in 2002, countered, there could be no better captain to steer young players. "He'll be different to me and Woosie (Ian Woosnam], but there are many different people in the world. Nick will do it his way and he'll be fine."

What the new Faldo shares with the old Faldo, according to Paul Casey, a possible captain's pick today along with Ian Poulter, Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, is the overwhelming desire to play winning golf. "When it comes to the Ryder Cup," noted Casey, "all that has to happen will happen, but Nick will put the golf light years ahead of everything else."

In other words, the only melodies Europe's piper wants to play at Valhalla are tunes of glory.

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