|
 Spieth rocketed to the top of the rankings with a spectacular run of
form this season that included maiden major championship victories
at the U.S. Masters and the U.S. Open.
The 22-year-old American, however, is not renowned for his long
hitting and he told reporters at the WGC-HSBC Champions event in
Shanghai earlier this month that he would like to add some distance
off the tee.
Faldo went through a similar thought process 30 years ago. The
Briton completely remodelled his swing when he was number one in
Europe and the gamble paid off as he went on to land three Masters
Green Jackets and three British Open Claret Jugs.
"He doesn't need to (change)," Faldo told Reuters in an interview.
"I've been there, when you're playing well you're always looking for
more but all you really want to do is just maintain things.
"If you're playing good enough to compete against everyone ... and
your game is good enough to beat the best in the world ... I
wouldn't go and look to over tinker with it," said Faldo, shaking
his head.
"That's what many have done before, (thinking) 'I've got this good,
I want to keep going', but maintaining it is a tough enough game."
Faldo, who spent a total of 97 weeks at the top of the world
rankings in four spells from September 1990 to January 1994, said he
could not stress enough the importance of self-belief.
"There's a knife edge between playing so well that it makes you feel
so darn good that you feel 100 percent confident ... to then, very
simply, hitting a few bad shots -- that whacks your confidence," he
explained.
"All of a sudden, you don't feel right and don't feel the same,"
said the 58-year-old Englishman as he launched a range of wines from
six of Europe's classic regions to celebrate each of his major
victories (www.miltonsandfordwines.com).
"Crumbs, it's 30 years ago that I went through that, decided to
change my swing. I was European number one at the time."
APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE
Faldo, who won the Open in 1987, 1990 and 1992 and the Masters in
1989, 1990 and 1996, said things had changed dramatically for the
modern generation of players.
"The fortunate thing now is that you don't have to go through that
process," he explained. "I did it the old fashioned way, tip your
balls out and beat them.
"Now you have what I call the appliance of science. You have
machines to tell your swing path, club-face angle, ball flights
after one shot -- that's fantastic.
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"I wish I would have had that rather than hit a million balls and
then go, 'Oh, I wonder how this feels?," added Faldo with a giggle.
Europe's 2008 Ryder Cup captain also said golfers were much more
powerful nowadays.
"The physical side has been taken to a new level. They've really
done a good job in dispelling the thought that it's an old man's
sport," said Faldo.
"These guys now are unbelievably strong. We have more than a dozen
doctors travelling on tour with degrees in biomechanics ... they
know exactly how to build a golfer and that's fantastic.
"This is all factual information, it's not a guess. It's been around
for years now and kids at 15 get this knowledge for five years and
bang, that's why they can come out at 20 and be impressive golfers."
Faldo, who now works as a golf analyst on television in the United
States, saluted the 'New Big Three' of Spieth, world number two
Jason Day and third-ranked Rory McIlroy.
"Many thought it was all doom and gloom and golf would start to fall
off people's interest after Tiger Woods' dominance ... but the
quality of golf this season was astonishing," he explained.
"I call them the 'New Big Three' and fortunately they are being
chased by a dozen other guys. TV ratings are up 30 percent in
America, people are watching.
"Kids who used to be surfing dudes are now talking golf, that's the
important thing," said Faldo. "I've been travelling the world and
everybody's now talking golf.
"Hopefully we've got a generation of three players for at least the
next 10 years who can keep bashing each other's brains in." (Editing
by Mark Lamport-Stokes)
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