Faldo still a slave to his ethics and dreams

Nick Faldo, having beaten the cut – and finished the second round of the Masters two shots better than the only other winner of three green jackets left in the field, somebody called Woods – went straight to the putting green.

He was the only player there. He worked for more than an hour with a specialist on the alignment of the human eye, a Swede named Kjiell Enhanger, and his coach, Jeremy Bennett. That left him slightly less than another hour before he started round three.

"I would probably have skipped it," he said, "until I three-putted on the last hole. You know it would drive you crazy if you thought about it too much, but I have left about 10 strokes out there in the last day and a half. My best birdie was about threeand-a-half feet. I should be leading the tournament – mind you, I might yet." It was a piece of optimism ill served by a third round of trial which brought five bogeys against three birdies for a 75, but the certainty was that Faldo would battle on, raising a fist to the fates and the clock.

Faldo is 45 ­ a year younger than when Jack Nicklaus, who limped out of the tournament a few minutes before Faldo went to the putting green, won the last of his six Masters titles and 18th Major ­ and he admits that his belief that he can stretch his Major wins past the current total of six comes and goes. "Today is a day when I think I can do it. If I could shoot a 69 this afternoon I would be right back in it. As Tiger said about himself before this tournament, I've been here before ­ I know how to do it.

"That's today, though. There are other days when I think, 'What is this frickin' Everest I'm trying to climb? Why don't you go away, you silly old man?' Whatever the state of your mind, though, you have to do the work, because if you don't you are wasting everybody's time, including your own."

So he does the work. He putts relentlessly, and in between Enganger gives him little exercises. He putts with one eye closed, with one hand, and then is asked to throw the ball in the direction of a hole with both eyes closed. "What I'm trying to do is making some relationship with the bloody golf hole," says Faldo.

As Faldo talks it is easy to remember another practice green up in Ohio ­ Nicklaus's practice green, half a decade before he watered a desert of lost form with that last Major. Nicklaus worked into the dusk and used phrases that now come from Faldo's mouth. "I'm hitting the ball so well, I could lose my mind reviewing my tournament scores," said Nicklaus.

Watching Faldo work, you also wonder all over again how it came to be that the former European Ryder Cup captain Mark James told the world so casually that he had thrown into the rubbish bin a good-luck letter written by the man who had so dominated his own generation of British golfers. Maybe it was because Faldo was so much better than the rest ­ and never too reluctant to say it was so.

Yesterday Faldo was as trenchant as ever about the difference between winners and losers. "Any businessman can tell you about that difference," Faldo said. "You have to fight to get to the top, work like hell, and the moment you don't, somebody comes along and cuts your throat. For a little while I got very frustrated that there seemed to be such little appreciation of this in British golf and, generally, British sport.

"I've always said that there is one thing tougher than getting to the top in world sport. It's staying there. Always, you have to ask yourself if you're prepared to do what's necessary. The question about whether you truly believe all the work is going to bring success is a come-and-go thing, but you do the work anyway."

Bennett said: "I'm so glad I was able to persuade Nick not to go for the Ryder Cup captaincy this time. He wants very much to do it, but I said to him, 'Look, there's plenty of time for you to do that. You've still got a lot of playing to do. You can still win things. Why walk away?' If I had any doubts about that belief, they have gone here. He could be leading the tournament now ­ and I believe he has a great chance of getting into real contention. When a course is drying out like this, when it's getting more difficult, I really think Nick can still beat anybody."

Five years ago, Nicklaus stopped time here with an astonishing challenge. He was 58 years old. On that scale, Faldo has plenty of time to make something of an impact. "You never know," he says, "I could just get back to the top of the mountain." You know for sure, as he strides away from the empty practice green, it will not be for the lack of a decent try. Before he leaves, he sinks four straight 12-footers. And sighs.