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Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Sir Nick Faldo takes swipe at UK while bragging about Donald Trump friendship
Multimillionaire golfer Nick Faldo, who was knighted for services to sport, told how he has no plans to return to Britain after taking a recent stroll down Eton High Street Sir Nick Faldo has criticised the UK using one of the nation's wealthiest high streets to attack his homeland while simultaneously praising life in his pal Donald Trump's America. The multimillionaire golfer, who was knighted for services to sport, told how he has no plans to return to Britain after taking a recent stroll down Eton High Street. 'We walked down Eton High Street because we used to live near there and it's looking a bit rough,' he said. 'You know, things have gone down. The shops are closing, there's boarded up windows and I'm disappointed to see that the country is struggling, to be honest. And, I mean, that's a shame.' The six-time major winner then boasted about his friendship with Trump before praising his adopted America, where he lives with his fourth wife, Lindsay De Marco. The former topless dancer is an ardent fan of the controversial president, often posting her support of him on the couple's Instagram page. When asked about Trump's America, Faldo, 67, told the Telegraph: 'You've got to say the attitude [in the US] is good. It's back to the good old psychology of life. You've got to be seeing good things and saying good things. Self-hypnosis is really powerful, you know?' His gushing praise of Trump's leadership came as America is currently teetering on the edge of recession, where grocery prices are spiralling due to the US leader's unhinged tariffs, and democracy is under siege from the president's attacks. Despite accepting a knighthood and continuing to use the 'Sir' title, Faldo said he has no intention of returning to the UK, choosing instead to spend his time in Montana, where he lives on a farm with his wife. Last year, the couple attended a Trump campaign rally during which the US leader spoke about the golfer while on stage. Addressing supporters in August, he said: "This guy is a major golfer. He is a major friend of mine. One of the best ever. They knighted him in England or the UK. And he just knew how to win. He could take people, he'd play the best players in the world, and they always folded in front of him. In fact, I think I need to bring him into government 'cause we like to get other people to fold. And his nickname is Foldo (sic) because he makes everyone, but his name is Faldo. Nick Faldo and his beautiful wife, Lyndsay. Where is Nick?" Trump then turned to point to the retired golfer who was sitting several rows back from the podium. "That guy can play golf," Trump added. "He's won six majors and many, many tournaments, and he's one of the greatest golfers ever. It's an honour, as a golfer. You are a piece of work. He's a tough cookie, too. You talk about a tough cookie. That's a tough cookie." Now, Faldo has spoken about his friendship with Trump, boasting about their relationship. 'He always calls me Nicky,' the golfer said of the businessman, recalling the frequency of their conversations. 'So when I started TV, out of the blue, a Monday after a tournament, I remember I was down hitting golf balls, and it's Donald, back when he was just a businessman,' he added. ''Nicky,'' Faldo said, impersonating Trump. Nicky, how did he blow that tournament? You wouldn't have done that, Nicky. You'd have done this, you'd have done that, Nicky.' Over ten years, that happened two or three times a year out of the blue.' Faldo revelled in the idea of calling Trump, treating the president as a party trick. 'For fun, I could be anywhere in the world and if somebody was talking about this and that, I'd say: 'I'll call him'. And I always get through. Honestly. One hundred per cent of the time,' he said. He went on to reveal an anecdote about ignoring a phone call from the president during the 2019 Masters, while on live television. 'It's the 2019 Masters. Tiger's just won... one of the ladies from CBS leans over to me and goes, 'I have a call from the president of the United States for you, sir...'' 'I say, 'Oh, tell him to call me on Monday.' She goes, 'no, it's the president of the United States'. It's fine, tell him that I'm busy, I'm on with (sports presenter Jim) Nantz!.' So anyway, about 4pm... my phone rings and I've got the president of the United States on the line. I've got Donald saying, 'Nicky, Nicky, how did he win this? How did he win this? How did he do that?' I go back: 'Do you realise that I'm live on flipping TV. Do you mind?' So my claim to fame is that he called two golfers on that day, and Tiger was second.' Faldo's praise for Trump comes as the president's bizarre tariffs hammer US households and his administration flouts laws and the constitution to impose the US leader's will. His wife has made no secret of her love for the former businessman, often posting on social media her support. Last year, following a failed assassination attempt on Trump, she posted a picture of him as he raised his hand in defiance. She wrote alongside the picture: "This is the only man I want leading our country." Before Joe Biden dropped out of the race, she often criticised the then-US leader. She has long held conservative views. Her fifth of seven husbands was multi-millionaire US businessman Scott Sangalli. As Mrs Sangalli, the couple, who were close to failed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, used his wealth to support the Republican party while indulging Lindsay in her love of politics. Thirteen years ago, after running for office herself, she won the title of Mrs Conservative US. On winning the title, Lindsay, who is a convicted drug felon, said: "One side or size doesn't fit all, and the liberal agenda isn't for everyone. "The pageant sends out the message to women that being a conservative woman or young lady is a choice like any other. If it's their choice, then they should embrace it, and the Conservative US Pageant is the perfect place to showcase conservative women of all ages and to celebrate conservatism in America."
Irish Examiner
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Rory McIlroy goes back to first love, where back-to-back majors feels fated
Can a time warp also be timeless? With Nick Faldo on the microphone all things are possible. Roll the video and Rory McIlroy is so clearly a previous incarnation of himself. The threads: a brown, baby blue and green striped polo doesn't strike our 2025 eyes as 2010 chic but something your oul fella would've worn to mow the lawn back then. It's matched with a pair of blinding white pants that billow around McIlroy's 20-year-old thighs and calves, yet to be bulked. Saturday night fever meets Sunday afternoon starboy. There's the dark, twisting curls bursting out of the bottom of his cap and a little puppy fat around the chin and cheeks. Rory Óg or OG Rory, whichever you prefer. Even in redux mode, McIlroy skilfully straddles thorny things like the Irish Language Act. Up in the commentary box above the 18th green, Faldo is the same Faldo, his only incarnation. 'That was a very warm welcome for a young…foreign…lad. Beautiful,' stumbles Faldo, who has belatedly become an skilled pundit but back then could sound like an Accidental Country Club Partridge waiting to happen. 'I should think [he'll be] lagging up for a par four.' Thought wrong, Nick. From 43 feet back on the 72nd and final hole of the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship, McIlroy sends a wondrous putt coursing confidently up and then turning towards the hole. 'How about making it?' asks Faldo's CBS partner Jim Nantz, meeting the moment with a tone and pitch that told viewers this wasn't a standard Tour Sunday but a date and an occasion marking the beginning of something big. The birdie drops. 'Ha-haaa,' Nantz howls. 'Welcome to the big time, Rory McIlroy. Wow, what a finish!' The record shows that the big time began on May 2, 2010. Fifteen years and 10 days later McIlroy made his way back here Monday. He was greeted with angry skies that emptied a deluge down. It will clear and dry out as the week goes on. Anyway, there are likely no climactic conditions which could make McIlroy uncomfortable here. From that week to this, Quail Hollow, a rolling, rippling former dairy farm south of Charlotte, has become the Holywood man's favourite stop. So much so that he's looked at making it an extended stay. After winning last year's Wells Fargo here, racking up his fourth victory on a track where he has twice set the course record and made 10 top-10s out of 14 visits, he admitted he'd spent time on Zillow, a Stateside version of Daft, browsing nearby houses. McIlroy is a sponsor's ultimate dream because he can say with believable sincerity that he likes many things, many places, many products. When it comes to Quail Hollow, however, he speaks of love. Leaving the Truist Championship in Philadelphia on Sunday to travel down to North Carolina for his tilt at a third Wannamaker Trophy this week, he again sounded smitten. 'I'm in a good place. I didn't feel like I played all that well this week, I still finished seventh. Even what I feel is my bad golf, I'm still there or thereabouts,' McIlroy said. 'A couple tweaks, especially going to a place I love like Quail Hollow, and I'm in a really good spot.' You never forget your first love and diving back into footage from that scintillating Sunday in 2010 offers early evidence as to why McIlroy would make this course his own. Yet it's important too to rewind just a little more, 48 hours, to when a late eagle ensured he made the cut by the bare minimum. In a fitful first few months Stateside it had looked to be another missed cut until it wasn't. From there, the breakout began. McIlroy carded 10 birdies on the Saturday to move into the fourth-last group on Sunday. He was paired with America's own starlet, Anthony Kim, chasing Angel Cabrera, Phil Mickelson and Davis Love atop the leaderboard. The chase would turn into a rout, McIlroy firing eight birdies and an eagle in a course-record 62. In a fascinating, granular breakdown last week exploring why McIlroy is so damn good here, Golf Digest began with the most common observation: if you drive it far and well, Quail Hollow rewards you. This is true. But going deeper, the analysis suggested the course eschews the wedge competitions we see too often elsewhere and instead lets McIlroy be the most effective version of his 'long-range sniper' self. While that monster birdie putt on 18 became the image of his historic 2010 breakthrough, the shot which better fits that analysis and perhaps best explains this magical meeting of course and player came at the long 15th. A booming drive left McIlroy 206 yards back in the fairway. He pulled out a 5-iron and arrowed it into a couple of feet. The eagle pushed him three clear of Mickelson and he navigated the daunting closing three holes, the Green Mile, with all of that momentum finishing with a magical flourish. The young star subplot proved a rout too: he bettered Kim's score by eight shots and as McIlroy returns here the newest member of the grand slam club, Kim's current career 'renaissance' sees him finish last or close enough to it every week on the LIV Tour. Since that inaugural win, this place has been both familiar and fertile ground. It has served as a springboard but also a source of solace in rough times for McIlroy. With his greatest weight lifted at last month's Masters, the opportunity to win back-to-back majors here of all places feels almost fated. 'When you're not winning, when you're not delivering, it becomes a burden. [Rory] will be a lot more comfortable with who he is now.' Those words are Padraig Harrington's. They didn't come after Augusta 2025 but Quail Hollow 2010 after the Dubliner had hung around to see the breakthrough. Fifteen years later at this same place, it's a quote that feels, well, timeless.
Metro
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Nick Faldo names top five golfers in history after Rory McIlroy wins the Masters
Ryder Cup legend Nick Faldo has named the top five golfers in history after Rory McIlroy's sensational Masters victory. McIlroy beat Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose in a play-off to win his first Masters title and finally complete the career Grand Slam. The 35-year-old missed a par putt to win the Augusta tournament in regulation but recovered to birdie the first play-off hole and pip Rose to glory. McIlroy had been chasing a career Grand Slam for over a decade, having won The Open and PGA Championship in 2014, three years after securing his first major at the US Open. By achieving golfing immortality, McIlroy became just the sixth man – and first European – to clinch the career Slam following Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tiger Woods. He remains one short of Faldo's Slam tally but the three-time Masters champion insists McIlroy has already achieved more than him. Faldo in fact rates McIlroy as one of the top five golfers in history along with the aforementioned Hogan, Nicklaus, Player and Woods. 'It's a whole different kettle of fish nowadays. He's done way more than me,'Faldo told The Times. 'He's won 29 times in America. 'Of the all-time greats, I'd put him fifth. Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack [Nicklaus] and Tiger [Woods]. Rory is right there. 'No discredit to Gene Sarazen, but that was a completely different era. I've hardly seen any footage of him, but achieving the grand slam puts you in a different category.' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Having 'shaken the Masters monkey off his back', McIlroy can go on to win 'multiple more majors', according to Faldo. 'He obviously got off to a flyer with those first four majors,' the 67-year-old said. 'I remember I said then he might be really disappointed to only win ten majors or he will be ecstatic to win five. 'Tiger [Woods] and [Ben] Crenshaw both had big gaps [also 11 years] but only won one more. Rory is 35, he's as fit as a fiddle, and you've got to believe he's really shaken the monkey off his back. 'I would've thought it'll set him free and he might be the unique one to go on and win [multiple] more majors. 'I did get teary because I kind of know that walk off 18 and realising what he'd done, people don't appreciate the workload that has gone into that physically, technically, mentally. 'You spend thousands of hours and hit millions of balls to reach your goal, and a heck of a goal it was.' More Trending Faldo has known McIlroy for more than two decades and first realised he was a 'special' when they played a practice round at Carnoustie in 2007. 'I had this thing called Team Faldo and I took six or eight of them to California,' he added. 'James Heath was the best amateur, Ollie Fisher was there. Rory was like third back then, but I remember I played with him in a practice round at Carnoustie [in 2007]. 'It was chucking it down with rain and he put all his waterproofs on and then he made that famous follow through and I went, 'Wow, that's different'. That was the first time [I knew he was special].' For more stories like this, check our sport page. Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. MORE: Woman dies days after being hit by van chased into golf club by police MORE: Manchester United and Tottenham face Europa League elimination MORE: Paris Saint-Germain will be too strong for Aston Villa in the Champions League
Irish Daily Star
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Star
'They've hurt themselves' - Nick Faldo sends tough message to LIV Golf stars
Nick Faldo has expressed his belief that the stars of LIV Golf have "hurt themselves" due to their tour lacking a "fear of failure." The golfing world is currently basking in the afterglow of Rory McIlroy 's Grand Slam-winning Masters success , which saw the 35-year-old end an 11-year major drought. One narrative that emerged from the final round at Augusta was Faldo's criticism of LIV star Bryson DeChambeau . Faldo denies that he was overly harsh towards DeChambeau, dismissing criticism of his comments as "bull----." Meanwhile, the views of PGA Tour stars on DeChambeau have come to light . Read More Related Articles Donald Trump comes up with ludicrous way to look taller next to Ohio State football team Read More Related Articles Rory McIlroy's wife Erica Stoll eyes huge life decision after Masters win due to awkward reason However, Faldo also believes that playing on the Saudi-backed tour has largely been detrimental to LIV Golf players when it comes to competing at majors. DeChambeau, who Faldo admits he likes, ended up finishing tied-5th after entering the final day second behind McIlroy. In contrast, Jon Rahm finished tied-14th, while fellow major winners, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith, both missed the cut. Since LIV Golf's inaugural season in 2022, which saw many PGA Tour stars switch to the new lucrative start-up tour, two of their players, DeChambeau and Koepka, have won majors. However, Faldo believes that the reason why LIV's stars aren't experiencing the same level of success now that they play on the Saudi-backed tour compared to their PGA Tour days, is because they are part of a "fail-free tour." Speaking to The Times , Faldo drew a parallel between the golfers' situation and that of a top racing driver participating in only a few events. He remarked: "If Max Verstappen only drove in a Formula One race four times a year, I'd be shocked if he could perform. You've got to be in the same arena all the time. Louis Oosthuizen, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Cameron Smith are among the golfers who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf "They have a fail-free tour. They've got wonderful appearance fees and prize money galore and they're guaranteed it next week whether they hit their hat or not. "There's no fear of failure, and that is a serious driving force. Cam Smith has gone quiet. Brooks has gone quiet. You can't tell me that in some way it hasn't affected them. "I think they thought it was all going to be resolved and they could run off and, even if they had to pay half of it back in a fine, they'd make a huge amount of money. "But I don't think [the PGA Tour-LIV divide] needs to be resolved. They've gone off to play their tour. Fine. They've done incredibly well [financially] and, if your priority is a boatload of cash, you got it. But if you would rather have an incredible career, I think they've hurt themselves."
Daily Mirror
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Nick Faldo sums up feelings on Rory McIlroy with comment on greatest ever players
Rory McIlroy has been the subject of much debate since winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, and Sir Nick Faldo has had his say on the matter Sir Nick Faldo has placed Rory McIlroy fifth on his all-time greatest golfers list, claiming that the Northern Irishman is "right there" with the legends of the game. McIlroy has accomplished a feat that has eluded many golfers by completing a career Grand Slam, winning all four major titles. His poignant victory at the Masters has led to acclaim as one of the greatest players to grace the greens. McIlroy joins a prestigious group of golfers who have achieved the Grand Slam, including icons like Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player. Only six players have managed to win all four majors so far, and McIlroy became the first European to join this exclusive club in 2025. This milestone has sparked discussions about his standing among the sport's elite, and one golfing legend has offered his perspective on the debate. Faldo, a six-time major winner, has contributed his thoughts regarding McIlroy's place in the list of golf greats, suggesting that he ranks higher than many might assume. Even though Faldo is considered one of the sport's finest, he places McIlroy above himself and names only four others he deems superior to the Northern Irishman. Speaking to The Times, the Englishman said: "It's a whole different kettle of fish nowadays. He's done way more than me. He's won 29 times in America. Of the all-time greats, I'd put him fifth. Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack [Nicklaus] and Tiger [Woods]. Rory is right there." Faldo also discussed how different "eras" of golf impact player rankings, as he admitted that American icon Gene Sarazen is one of the greats, but not quite on par with McIlroy. He added: "No discredit to Gene Sarazen, but that was a completely different era. I've hardly seen any footage of him, but achieving the grand slam puts you in a different category." Faldo also commended McIlroy's determination to clinch his first Masters victory on his 11th attempt, suggesting that this breakthrough could unleash the golfer's potential for future major wins. The 67-year-old said: "Rory is 35, he's as fit as a fiddle, and you've got to believe he's really shaken the monkey off his back. I would've thought it'll set him free and he might be the unique one to go on and win [multiple] more majors. "I did get teary because I kind of know that walk off 18 and realising what he'd done, people don't appreciate the workload that has gone into that physically, technically, mentally. "You spend thousands of hours and hit millions of balls to reach your goal, and a heck of a goal it was."
