NICK Faldo, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, will make only a flying visit to Scotland on Sunday week for the final day of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles to announce his two wild cards for the match against the USA at Valhalla in Kentucky from 19-21 September.
It's understood that Faldo, who has yet to say if he wants to add to vice-captain Jose Maria Olazabal in his backroom team, will spend around eight hours at Gleneagles. He's expected to fly into Dundee on the Sunday morning when he'll be met by a ch
auffeur-driven car and then escorted to Perthshire, where he'll monitor events during the closing round.
The winner of six majors will give one press conference at around 6pm, to be shown by Sky, after the last putt has been holed and the qualifying process for the Europeans over. The shortness of his stay suggests Faldo already knows his men.
Now a successful TV golf commentator in America, Faldo was asked about his schedule when he gave a media briefing at Wentworth before the BMW PGA earlier this summer, and the Englishman indicated how Ryder Cup commitments had forced him to cut how often he played rather than his TV work.
"I've got my TV schedule, but I basically curtailed my playing schedule to make it happen this year," he said. "It works great for me. But I watch the European and American Tours on TV
and I'm completely up to date." When Bernhard Langer, Europe's captain in 2004, chose to escort his daughter, Jackie, to college in America and missed the first three days of the final qualifying tournament in Munich, the BMW, his absence was widely criticised at the time.
However, the validity of that complaint turned to ash when Langer emerged as one of Europe's best ever leaders and brilliantly captained the continent to a record 18 ½ - 9 ½ victory at Oakland Hills in Michigan.
The full article contains 331 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
