With six majors apiece, Nick Faldo and Patty Sheehan are seventh in the in the majors winner rankings.
Like Ben Hogan before him, Faldo has dedicated his entire sporting life to the pursuit of excellence with enormous determination.
More than any other player of his time, the Englishman has relentlessly pursued the holy grail of golf, that is, total control of the ball. The swing he has built in this endless chase not only maintained it over time, but excelled in the most important moments of the game.
Between 1987 and 1995, Faldo won six majors: three British Opens and three Masters. Although he has a total of 39 tournament victories worldwide, including six on the PGA Tour, Faldo’s goal has always been the big four: the Masters, the US Open, British Open and US PGA Championship. Between 1988 and 1993, Faldo consistently ranked in the top twenty in Grand Slam tournaments.
Faldo had based his game on dedication, consistency, tempo and one of the most competitive minds ever seen in the sport. Despite his height and athletic, broad-shouldered frame, Faldo has never been a particularly powerful player. Consistency, distance control, and his unhurriedness on the field are his strengths. His record makes him possibly the best player of his height or taller in the history of the game.
Four of his majors he won by narrow margins in hard-fought battles, either by one stroke or in playoffs, and often after accelerating from behind on the scoreboard. In the 1987 British Open, Faldo made 18 pars in the final round and emerged victorious when Paul Azinger bogeyed the last two holes. The 1989 Masters was won in a playoff when Scott Hoch missed a half-meter putt. The following year, Raymond Floyd hit a faulty stroke on his approach to the second extra hole in the playoff to give Faldo the victory. In 1992 at Muirfield, Faldo lost a five-shot lead on Sunday, but rallied with birdies at the end to win his third British Open by one stroke.
At the 1996 Masters, Faldo started the final day six strokes behind Greg Norman, but he carded a flawless 67 to take the victory. Faldo’s most impressive GrandSlamtriumph came in 1990 at the British Open at St. Andrews. He dominated the Old Course with dazzling play and humbled the field with a total of 270 strokes, 18 under par, winning the tournament by a margin of five strokes.
Born on July 18, 1957 in Welwyn Garden City, England, Faldo had a versatile talent for sports and all the characteristics of a world-class cyclist. After his parents bought him a racing bike when he was 12 years old, young Faldo gave them an upset by completely dismantle the machine because he wanted to know how it worked. Years later, he did the same with his golf swing. At 14, Faldo took up golf after watching the 1971 Masters on television. One of his first teachers, Ian Connelly, told him, “The easier your swing, the better your shots will be,” advice that helped his pupil a lot.
Faldo won 10 titles in 1975 as an amateur and joined the European Tour the following season. Over the next eight years, he showed excellent play, starting to win tournaments and laying the foundation for his brilliance throughout his Ryder Cup career. But Faldo seemed to falter in the crucible of major championships, and this did not sit well with his perfectionist nature.
At the 1983 British Open at Birkdale, another dismal final round convinced Faldo that if he wanted to win majors he would have to overhaul his swing. He enlisted the services of coach David Leadbetter in 1984. For the next three years he recorded poor results as a result of taking on a risky swing change. mid-career. But the swing that emerged, which emphasized the big muscles of the body in accordance with Leadbetter’s overriding principle that “the dog wags the tail,” was more solid, more reproducible and reliable. Faldo’s victory at Muirfield in 1987 was validation of that change, as were the other five majors he later conquered.
On June 13, 2009, after six majors, 39 worldwide victories and 11 consecutive Ryder Cups, Faldo, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame since 1998, was awarded a knighthood.
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PATTY SHEEHAN
This formidable player is a tribute to the strength of a person who is at her best when life seems to be at its worst. Patty Sheehan, who has twice responded to adversity with great accomplishments, has proven that heart and courage mean as much in golf as talent.
In 1989, Sheehan lost his home, his trophies and nearly all of his life savings in the San Francisco earthquake. He returned the following year to win five tournaments and more than $732,000. Almost all of that money went to pay bills, but it was the tournament he lost in 1990 that represented as much potential devastation to his career as the earthquake did to his financial security.
The U.S. Women’s Open that year was played at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Sheehan had an 11-stroke lead in the third round and ended up losing it all to Betsy King. As Sheehan said later, “I had owned the Open. It was in my hands. I could break a leg and hit it well enough to win, but I hadn’t been able to do it.”
Two years later, Sheehan arrived at Oakmont CC after two consecutive victories. He birdied the 71st and 72nd holes and then defeated Juli Inkster in a play-off. He won the Open again in 1994, but the 1992 victory at Oakmont was his greatest accomplishment.
“It was a great comeback from 1990 and, emotionally, it healed a lot of wounds,” Sheehan said. “It was the most significant victory of my career because I overcame a lot of self-doubt. It would have been very difficult to live the rest of my life without winning an Open. Now I feel like I’m on vacation from adversity and that 1992 Open win made me a different person, much happier and more content. If I never win another tournament, I’m still complete because that was the one I wanted.”
Patricia Leslie Sheehan, better known as Patty Sheehan, came into the world on October 27, 1957 in Middlebury, Vermont. Her father, Bobo, was a college ski coach in Vermont and also an Olympic ski coach. As the only girl in the family, Sheehan learned to compete to survive. She was as good a soccer player as her three brothers and by age 13 was ranked the number one downhill skier in her age group in the country. Golf was a secondary sport until Sheehan turned 18, when her handicap was reduced to scratch and the University of Nevada-Reno offered her a scholarship.
As an amateur, Sheehan won state titles in Nevada and California, the AIAW Naci
onal Championship for San Jose State, and was runner-up in the 1979 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. She was undefeated on the 1980 Curtis Cup team and won Rookie of the Year honors on the LPGA Tour in 1981.
“I was always very competitive,” Sheehan said. “I saw myself as a winner from a very young age. I played with kids my whole life, and I seemed to be their equal, if not better. I never thought of myself as anything less than a winner. To be successful, one needs drive, determination and self-confidence, and some kind of peace of mind about what you’re doing.”
That attitude resulted in one of the most successful careers in LPGA history. By the 2003 season, she had won 35 tournaments, including two Opens, three LPGA Championships and a Dinah Shore. In 1995, she qualified for the Hall of Fame with a victory at the SAFECO Classic. “I feel inside that I should be in there because I stepped up and achieved that level and there’s a place for me next to those greats,” Sheehan said. “I’m not bragging. I just feel that way.”
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