Golf: Faldo feels the pain as his hopes fade

Tim Glover
Saturday 15 August 1992 23:02 BST
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NICK FALDO, the world No 1, was attempting to explain why he expends so much time and energy on this infernal game. His raison d'etre, he said, was to fill his cupboard with little silver cups. 'I play for the love of the game,' he said. The remark was greeted with a spontaneous roar of laughter. When it subsided, Faldo said: 'I'm hurt.' He was hurt again yesterday in the third round when he shot 76.

Faldo began the day two strokes behind Gene Sauers and one in front of Steven Richardson. He ended it eight behind Sauers, who shot 70 in the third round. In the 74th US PGA Championship at Bellerive Sauers began with 67, 69 to stand at six under par, Faldo 68, 70. Sauers, from Savannah, Georgia, has two victories in nine years on tour but he's never won a major. He only plays in the big ones for which he doesn't have to qualify. 'They have their rules and I have mine,' he said. 'I'm going to hit it, find it and go hit it again.' Thus far he has not had much of a problem finding it. 'I'm going to treat this just like any other tournament,' he added.

Faldo, the winner of five major championships, said he knew differently. 'It's not that easy,' the 35-year-old Englishman said. 'It's not any other tournament and it's not just another golf course. Experience of winning the big ones gives you a little bit of an advantage.' In other words, Faldo expected Sauers and his like to suffer the twitch factor. The first prize is dollars 280,000, but that does not concern Faldo. He wanted to become the first Europe-based European to get his hands on the Wannamaker Trophy. No small silver cup this.

Nothing went right for Faldo yesterday. He went to the turn in 37, one over par, and dropped further strokes at the 10th and 12th holes. He had just one birdie - a 12-foot putt at the 13th - and made further bogeys at the 14th, 15th and 18th. Faldo went straight to the practice ground. 'I just played badly,' he said. 'I just lost it out there. I don't know why. There's not much more I can say.'

Bellerive, designed by Robert Trent Jones, has not been made more difficult by the weather, which has been unseasonably cool. It is downright difficult in its own right. 'You've got to hit it in the right places all the time,' Faldo said.

Sauers shot 70 yesterday and at 206 was seven under par for the championship, two strokes ahead of Jeff Maggert and the Zimbabwean Nick Price. Maggert shot 65, a new course record after sinking everything but the QE2, and Price 68. 'It is certainly possible for Faldo to still win,' Price said. 'It's a tall order but the way he putts he could shoot 63 in the last round.'

Colin Montgomerie took four putts at the 10th hole in the second round - he missed from two feet and he missed from 18 inches - en route to a 76. It put him at six over par for the tournament and he was convinced he had missed the cut. He rang his wife and told her so. He was halfway through dinner when he learnt that the halfway cut was made at 148 - six over. Montgomerie teed off at 7.27am yesterday. It was a morning made for golf: a brilliant blue sky and a gentle breeze. Montgomerie shot 69, two under par for the day. 'It should have been a 64,' he said. 'It's the best round I've played all year. I hit all my irons right at the stick.'

What hurt the big Scotsman, who finished third in the US Open at Pebble Beach in June, was his putting. On seven occasions, putting for birdies, he missed from inside 15 feet. Pebble Beach, certainly in the final round, was considered by the majority to be virtually unplayable. 'This course is more difficult than Pebble Beach,' Montgomerie said. 'You've got to earn everything. The cream will rise to the top. Compared to this place Augusta National is a piece of cake.' Forget the cream. The raisins have risen.

John Daly, the defending champion, went round in 79 which put him at 14 over par for the championship.

John Hopkins, photograph, page 25

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