Faldo Calm, Collected About Defending Title

Nick Faldo is upbeat and unworried about the burden of defending his Masters golf title this year.

“There’s no pressure on me to repeat,” the 32-year-old Englishman said Tuesday, two days before the start of the 1990 Masters.

“That’s only been done by Jack,” he explained, referring to Jack Nicklaus, the only player to win back-to-back Masters.

“I’m able to forget about last year. Once I start out there, it’s all fresh,” said Faldo, who won the green jacket of the Masters champion last year with a birdie on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Scott Hoch.

Faldo, the 1985 British Open champion, acknowledged that he is in a good position to take a casual attitude toward winning the Masters.

“I’m feeling better than I did last year,” he told reporters after a practice round over the 6,905-yard course at the Augusta National Golf Club, permanent home of the Masters.

“I feel well prepared. It’s just a matter of being relaxed and going out and playing,” Faldo added.

Repeating as Masters champion has proved almost impossible over the years.

Since Bobby Jones founded the tournament in 1934, only Nicklaus has managed the feat--in 1965 and 1966. He had to survive an 18-hole playoff with Tommy Jacobs and Gay Brewer to do it.

When Sandy Lyle, Faldo’s Scottish nemesis, returned to Augusta last year after winning his green jacket in 1988, he failed to make the cut with rounds of 77 and 76.

Seve Ballesteros, the brilliant Spaniard considered to be one of the world’s best golfers, won the Masters in 1980 and 1983 and he, too, failed to make the cut the following years.