Faldo Bids for Third Masters Title in Row

AUGUSTA, Ga. —  It is Nick Faldo against the field--and history.

No one has ever won the Masters three times in a row.

Faldo has two.

No one has ever won the grand slam of golf.

Faldo has dreams.

Not since the glory days of Jack Nicklaus has one man so dominated the pre-tournament talk.

Through it all, the tall Englishman with the elegant swing and steadiest of games remains a calm craftsman going about his business.

“I don’t think of it as a third Masters,” Faldo said. “I’m trying to approach it as a major, any major.”

Besides, Faldo said, he has set himself a much more difficult target than a mere third consecutive Masters.

“The ultimate goal,” he said, “is the grand slam.”

No one has ever won the Masters, U.S. and British Opens, and the PGA in the same year. Only Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player have won all four in a career.

But Faldo thinks it can be done.

“In theory, nothing is impossible, is it?” he asked. His eyes took on a far-away look as he mused aloud, “You must do everything right. Play 16 wonderful rounds of golf.”

The first of those 16 rounds will be Thursday at Augusta National Golf Club when 88 of the world’s finest players -- 69 Americans and 19 from abroad -- tee off in the first of the year’s four major tests.

Only one other person has had a shot at three consecutive Masters titles. Nicklaus won in 1965 and 1966, but missed the cut the next year when he shot 72-79. In fact, only three men have won any of the four majors in three successive years. And no one has done it since Peter Thompson won the British Open from 1954-56.

It is a measure of Faldo’s present stature in the game -- and the level of his confidence -- that he has his sites set on more than just a third straight Masters.

“My goal is to try to win more majors,” he said. “Just keep trying. I’m anxious to see what is in store.”

Faldo made a run at it last year. He won the Masters in a playoff victory over Ray Floyd, missed making a playoff at the U.S. Open when a birdie putt on the last hole lipped the cup, and then won the British Open for the second time.

Ben Hogan is the only player to have a shot at the grand slam, and he passed on the chance. Hogan won the first three -- the Masters, U.S. and British Opens -- in 1953 then did not play in the PGA. Nicklaus won the first two -- the Masters and U.S. Open -- in 1972.

Faldo is approaching this Masters with a single-minded intensity reminiscent of the young Nicklaus -- focusing on the majors to the exclusion of all else.

Just as Nicklaus did, he has reduced his playing schedule and built it around the Big Four. He is giving himself every chance.

“I’ve won some (majors) now. I know how to do it. I’m on a roll. I want to try to win more,” said Faldo, now 33 and in the prime of his career.

After closing his 1990 season with a victory in the Hong Kong Open in December, Faldo took a two-month break from competition and granted only one television and one newspaper interview.

He spent time with his family.

He gained about 10 pounds and says he has benefitted from an exercise program designed to combat tendonitis in his wrists and elbows.

“I’m a lot stronger,” said Faldo, now carrying about 210 pounds on a 6-foot-3 frame. “I’m generating more speed in my shoulders and more resistence in my legs and I feel as though I’m hitting the ball further.”

He came to the United States in March and spent a week of intensive work with his teacher, David Leadbetter, in Florida before beginning a series of three tournaments leading up to Augusta.

Any question that the lead-up tournaments were anything more than preparation for the Masters was dispelled by an instance of absent-mindedness at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

On the second hole of the second round, Faldo lagged up close, marked his tap-in par putt and was staring into the pines while his playing partners putted out.

Then he joined them in the walk to the next tee. Only when Lanny Wadkins reminded him did Faldo go back to the green, replace his ball and finish the hole.

“You’re not going to give me that one, eh?” asked an embarassed Faldo, obviously caught with his mind on some other tournament in some other place.

He reaches that place this week and the preparation ends.

“I’m ready to get out there and get on with it,” Faldo said.

Some of his chief opposition can be expected from the other members of what Faldo calls “the Big Six,” the men who have dominated European -- and world -- golf in recent years and formed the nucleus of Europe’s last three successful Ryder Cup teams.

With Faldo, Seve Ballesteros of Spain, Sandy Lyle of Scotland and Bernhard Langer of Germany have accounted for five of the last seven British Opens and five of the last eight Masters.

It is the other two members of the Big Six, Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain and little Ian Woosnam of Wales, however, who could form the greatest threat.

Olazabal scored a record-breaking victory in the World Series of Golf last fall and Woosnam, a two-time winner of the European Order of Merit, was a recent winner in New Orleans.

Australian Greg Norman, who has come so close so often in the Masters, has not played particularly well since he was destroyed 67-76 in a head-to-head third round confrontation with Faldo in last year’s British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews.

Nicklaus, 51, and Tom Watson, 41, have had some spots of strong play early this year, but must become more consistent on the greens if they are to be a factor.