Faldo gets down to business in Louisville

09-17-2008 | AFP

The Europeans go for a record fourth straight win in the tournament.

Panama Star LOUISVILLE. Nick Faldo rallied his players on the first tee at Valhalla Golf Club early Tuesday as his work as Europe Ryder Cup skipper finally begun for real.

The cup holders had arrived at the Kentucky course the previous evening, seven on a charter flight from London and the five others joining them from different US locations. And with team bonding his first target, Faldo felt there was no better way of doing that than having a good look at what lay ahead.

“It was a good moment,” he said. “It was great that Sergio (Garcia) joined in; Lee Westwood joined in; we talked and we had a chat. Padraig (Harrington), as well. Everybody shared a few little thoughts.

“It went a lot further than I expected. It was my idea to go down. I enjoyed that, to see it. If you can see what you've got to do. I was very big on visualization, so you could then take that straight to the range. You can visualize that first tee shot, and off you go.

“We really had a good little chat for whatever we were there for, five, ten minutes, and that was really productive. The team are really tight together; it's great.”