For Faldo, rust never sleeps

ST. ANDREWS — Sir Nick Faldo will be playing his final Open Championship this week along with Tom Watson and Faldo admits his game isn’t what it used to be. “Even the rust is rusty,” said Faldo, a three-time holder of the claret jug who won on the Old Course 25 years ago. “I had a decent session a couple of weeks ago at the Greenbrier, practiced every morning, but then I’ve got TV in the afternoons, that sort of thing, and I was travelling last week, and then you bring it to here.

“Yeah, it’s quite a shock to go and play . . . like yesterday we played in that left-to-right, 20 mile-an-hour wind. It’s a real golf course. Yeah, it’s rust, very delicate rust, so I’ve got to work very hard, as best I can, to feel good for Thursday.”

HIGH ON TIGER

Mark O’Meara and David Graham were both inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame Monday and they both had opinions on Tiger Woods.

“He hasn’t won in a while. I know that. But you give him a sniff of it, and he starts to play a little bit better, and he starts to slowly get his confidence,” said O’Meara, Woods’ longtime pal. “I do believe he can win again. I think he’ll win another major championship. I don’t know if he’ll catch Jack (Nicklaus) or not. Probably maybe not, but if I say that, that’ll maybe motivate him to try.”

Nicklaus has 18 major wins to Woods’ 14.

“I still think if his name is on the leaderboard Sunday, he’s still the most feared player on the golf course, and he can control the flight of his golf ball better than anybody that I’ve ever seen play,” Graham said. “If he makes a couple of putts, there’s no telling.”

ON TO RIO

The International Golf Federation reported Monday that the problems surrounding the Olympic golf course in Brazil seem to be behind them.

“Things will be moving along pretty rapidly and I think it’s true to say that the IGF is now very confident that we’re in great shape to stage a first-class golf event in Rio in the Olympic Games in 2016,” said the R&A’s Peter Dawson.