Faldo is ready to master booth
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Nick Faldo has no regrets.
When the Masters Tournament begins Thursday morning without him, he'll happily stand back and watch. Becoming the first green-jacket holder to give up playing to take a full-time spin in the CBS broadcast booth didn't strike him as unnatural at all.
"I've had my era," Faldo said of his competitive career. "It is a different game now, and I think that I realized that as I was starting to do different things and enjoying it. To keep up with everybody else, you have to be at it 24/7, and if you're not doing that, that frustrated me.
"Then I realized this was a great opportunity in this new direction. I'm at peace with it. I'm happy to say I've played my 30 years as a player and had my great moments. Now I believe I've got more great moments in broadcasting and maybe business ventures as well. I've got 20 years of doing something different now."
The decision to vacate his spot on the first tee for a chair in the 18th green tower at Augusta wasn't as difficult as it might seem. "Once you get to that fork in the road, he took it," said Paul Azinger, Faldo's former competitive rival and broadcast partner at ABC. "Faldo has changed the direction of his career, and he's going hard and he knows what he's doing. He's redefined himself and who he is."
'Natural gift'
Faldo made an immediate splash when he started in the three-man booth with ABC, jibing perfectly with Azinger as their competitive personalities made for lively banter. Now Faldo is having to shift gears dramatically with more stoic booth partners. He has to carry much of the load with play-by-play novice Kelly Tilghman on The Golf Channel, then shift to not stepping on the toes of veteran Jim Nantz with CBS.
"He's really bitten off a lot," NBC analyst Johnny Miller told the New York Post. "It is like he has gone into one of those steak houses and ordered one of those 72-ounce porterhouses."
As overworked as he might be, this week at Augusta is where Faldo feels particularly at home. As a three-time Masters winner, he's welcome back for as long as he lives. However, he wanted his annual trips back to Augusta to mean more than just ceremony. He didn't want to be a guy who just attended the Champions Dinner, took a couple of turns around the course and had cocktails under the clubhouse tree. He wanted to come back with a purpose, even if it wasn't trying to win another green jacket.
"I always wanted to be there, but then you think you're just standing around and not doing anything," he said. "You go play a practice round and the Par-3 and everybody goes 'What are you doing here?' I dunno. What am I doing here? But I have a role and position to be there now and something to be really proud of."
That role came as a big surprise to anyone who had dealt with Faldo as a player. He was always defined by an intense focus that peers found less than endearing. As Faldo puts it, he was always "head down, blinkers on" when he stalked the major stages somewhat anti-socially. Now he exudes wit and British charm on the air.
"He's come in and shown a very natural gift for golf broadcasting," said Nantz.
"I think when Nick is on the air, he hears a lot of Peter Alliss floating around in his brain. His on-air mannerisms and style of delivery are very much like Peter Alliss', and I say that as a high compliment."
Faldo even surprised himself.
"I've been at it two years now, and I'll hear myself talking and think, 'I'm still talking,' and I'm actually quite surprised," Faldo said. "I'm rapping away. I never thought I'd be able to do that."
Dos and don'ts
With Faldo and Australian Ian Baker-Finch joining the CBS broadcast roster that includes Irishman David Feherty and another Englishman, Peter Oosterhuis, the Augusta airwaves will be thick with accents - almost equalling the number of Americans. That balance is very much in tune with the international makeup of the Masters field, which includes more foreign players than Americans for the first time.
Faldo doesn't believe that was the CBS plan.
"I don't think accent is the main thing they're worried about as long as they can understand us," he said.
CBS producer Lance Barrow agrees.
"Some coaches will say we just want the best players and we'll figure out where to put them," he said. "That's what we want. We want the best players. Some will have accents and some won't, but we want the best people in position that we can get."
Faldo is proving to be a blue-chip recruit.
"The difference between Faldo and other guys who go on TV is I think Faldo wants to be a star," Azinger said. "He doesn't want to be just another broadcaster. I think Faldo wants to do a part in an Austin Powers movie. He'd love to do a part in a James Bond movie. He'd love to be James Bond. He's got the look and he's got the brains and he's got the desire and talent to do what he wants in TV."
That's been the big draw for Faldo, who was a star on the golf course.
"I enjoy the entertainment factor," he said. "Somebody says, 'Have a good show.' That's when it hit that this is essentially entertaining. That's the vein I'm trying to go down. I believe I can talk well when it needs to be serious golf or serious strategy, and hopefully we can bounce around with fellow presenters, and people find it interesting in whatever way. That's the whole point, is for people to move closer to the screen."
CBS has long been reputed for being on a tight leash at the Masters. Popular analyst Gary McCord still sits out Masters Week every year because of his colorful descriptions of "bikini wax" greens that didn't please the membership at Augusta National. The coverage of the 2003 Masters completely ignored the subject of the female membership dispute and protests that dominated the run-up coverage in every other media outlet.
So in steps Faldo, known for his frankness and willingness to be critical when it's called for. Does winning three green jackets buy him the license to be candid during the Masters broadcasts?
"Certainly about the players I'll do my normal stuff," he said. "I've got to learn my words of what I can and can't say for Augusta. Sure, I'll tread lightly, and hopefully they'll cut me a bit of slack my first year, and if I go down the 'bikini wax' route they'll give me a second chance. I'll try my best. I'm sure I'll have to be very sensible and realize that everybody's got a one-year contract."
Barrow says Faldo has the freedom to be himself in the booth.
"I want Nick Faldo to be Nick Faldo," he said. "I'm not going to tell him what to say. I'll have an opinion of what I'd like him to say, but he's not a puppet."
Voice of experience
Joking aside, Faldo has as much reverence for the Masters and what it means as anyone, and his analysis is likely to reflect that.
"I mean, I actually love Augusta," he said. "Gosh, it's a Picasso. It's a bloomin' Rembrandt. It's a Mona, isn't it? I took friends who are not golfers last year who've never been and said, 'It's like a work of art, isn't it?' And they said, 'You're right. It's absolutely unbelievable. What a place.'
"Yes, you could get a bit harsh at the odd hole or this and that, but crumbs if you don't like the odd tree."
Ultimately, CBS and Faldo both understand what he brings to the booth: the perspective of a three-time Masters champion. They crave his insights on the course and his empathy for what the competitors are going through.
"We have Phil Simms at the Super Bowl," Barrow said of the former New York Giants quarterback turned CBS analyst. "Phil Simms knows what it's like to go down that tunnel. He knows what it's like to be a part of that game. He knows what it's like to win the Super Bowl. That's what Nick brings to the Masters.
"Obviously Nick will know what it's like to stand over a three-foot putt on the 18th hole at Augusta to win the tournament or a putt in sudden death at the 11th hole to win or someone coming out of nowhere to pick up six or eight strokes on the leader to win the tournament. Nick will have had that experience that no one has ever had and speak as an authority more than anyone we could find."
Johnny Miller, who worked with Faldo in the NBC booths during two Ryder Cups, thinks Faldo will add something CBS coverage was missing with former lead analyst Lanny Wadkins.
"I think they thought Faldo might say things that are a little bit more unpredictable," Miller told the New York Post. "A little more Johnny Miller-esque, like, 'Wow, did he just say that?' Lanny was a little bit more of a standard announcer."
Faldo tries not to be overly critical, as Miller has often been accused. Former ABC booth mediator Mike Tirico called Faldo a "20-to-1 guy," meaning for every criticism he levels he dishes out 20 compliments.
"He's not Johnny Miller. That's a different kind of candor," Azinger said. "Faldo has a lot of credibility as an analyst. He'll be smart, though. He knows who the personalities to be are and who he works for."
Peace of mind
Faldo - who also has some course-design projects around the world and is considering giving the Champions Tour a run when he's eligible next year - enjoys the challenge so far. He especially likes sharing the booth trying to match wits with Nantz.
"He's Mr. Unflappable, and that's my mission, to try to flap him," Faldo said of Nantz. "That's all I want to do is flap Mr. Unflappable. I'll be known as the Faldo flapper."
What he really is is a man at peace with his legacy and where he is in his career. Leaving the tournament for the younger competitors suits him fine. Now he can come to Augusta and hold court in front of the whole world.
"I might put my jacket on and swing around the tree there," Faldo said of the favorite gathering spot outside the back of the clubhouse. "I never wore my jacket. I always felt conscious of that. Players don't wander around in their jackets. I've thought, for the first time I might wear my jacket around outside and stand under the umbrellas and watch the game."
Then the man who was so intimidating as a player does an impression of himself as a watcher.
"Good luck, play well!" he says with a wave. "Bonne chance at winning your first."
No regrets at all.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
