Sir Nick Faldo is often highly critical of numerous different aspects of modern-day golf.
Nick Faldo is one of the most successful golfers of all time, with only 11 players in the history of the game having won more major championships than him.
The Englishman was uncompromising and steadfast in his approach on the golf course during his prime years, and was often highly opinionated.
He carried that attitude on into TV broadcasting, and is often found criticizing modern-day golfers for the way they go about things.
The six-time major champion regularly promotes his ideas to make the game better in general as well.
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For quite some time now, Faldo has urged the PGA Tour to make some big changes regarding their schedule.
Faldo has also been pushing for more 12-hole golf courses in order to make the game more accessible for those who don’t have five or six hours to spare.
However, the 68-year-old has one major axe to grind concerning modern-day golf and more specifically, something that the best players in the world do now that he never would have done during his prime.
What Nick Faldo cannot stand about modern golf
Faldo is one of the many players from bygone eras who constantly beats the drum about golf simply being too easy nowadays.
He has suggested many ways to make the game more difficult for modern-day stars, including limiting lofts on wedges.
The Englishman strongly believes that many of the best players in the game today have lost their competitive edge due to the lavish financial rewards on offer.
On his way to missing the cut at the Open Championship in 2007 at Carnoustie, Faldo shared one of his pet peeves about modern-day golf.
“They are all too chummy,” Faldo said.
“All the current generation are having lunch together and going off to play for a million dollars. I can’t imagine myself sitting with [Greg] Norman and [Nick] Pricey and having lunch together. And Tiger isn’t like that, either. In our era we were competitors, very separate individuals and we kept it that way. I heard Eric Bristow, of all people, said he would never stay with the England darts team, saying that the day they know everything about me is the day they beat me. I’ve remembered that to this day.”
“We had to play well to be here at events like these (The Open),” he said. “We had to win to create a brand and a future and a pension plan. These guys now have a future in a year. You can be a millionaire now in six months.
“You’ve got management companies guaranteeing a signing-on fee, so that’s another chunk. All I had when I started was a few hundred quid and if I had £100 worth of expenses one week, Dad used to dish out the money to me in £5 notes.
Nick Faldo makes Seve Ballesteros point
Faldo went on to clarify his point regarding how healthy rivalries between players is actually a really good thing.
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“Seve and I had 100-odd wins between the two of us. Now they get all excited at having 20 wins between the lot of them. Look what we achieved. We’ve got 11 majors between us.
“Add in that [Bernhard] Langer won two, Ollie [Jose Maria] two, Sandy [Lyle] two, Woosie one. That’s 18 majors between six guys to zero now. No harm in being healthy competitors. Everyone wants to be better at everything but with us it was ‘sod off, we’re off to play golf.’”
It’s actually a fair point from Faldo.
However, in the interest of balance, why can’t players be big rivals on the course but be friendly with one another away from tournaments?
Faldo was extremely driven and obsessed with winning and he simply wasn’t interested in anything else.
However, times have changed and the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have proven that it is actually possible to be fierce competitors on the golf course while enjoying close friendships with their rivals away from tournaments.
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