Bland Becomes Sweet for Faldo : Golf: He wins his second British Open title by five strokes, staking his claim as the world's best golfer.

By SHAV GLICK

July 23, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland —

Call Nick Faldo bland, as the British media do, but also call him efficient. As deadly efficient as an executioner.

Doubts that Faldo is the best golfer in the world were dispelled Sunday when he won his second British Open with a one-under-par 71 over the Old Course of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

The 71 gave him an 18-under-par 270 (67-65-67-71) and a five-shot margin over American Payne Stewart, the PGA champion, and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe, whose closing round 65 moved him past 17 players.

Only one stroke prevents Faldo from going for golf’s Grand Slam next month in the PGA at Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. He won his second consecutive Masters championship in April and missed the playoff for the U.S. Open by a single shot. Now he has another British Open title to go with the one he won in 1987.

If he wins the PGA, he will be the first player to win three major championships in a year since Ben Hogan in 1953. Hogan won the Masters, U.S. and British Opens but did not enter the PGA.

Faldo played 72 holes without a three-putt green. He hit into only one bunker on a course pock-marked with them and missed only two greens--except when he deliberately laid up on No. 17, the infamous Road Hole.

He started the final round with a five-stroke lead, but at one point it was cut to two by Stewart.

“My heart was racing out there, especially when Payne got within two,” Faldo said. “It seemed a lead of five strokes was a piece of cake and that I was expected to win, and if I didn’t it would be a real collapse, so it was kind of scary when it got to two. But I knew I was playing well and staying relaxed, so I just kept trying to get a putt to drop.

“I felt more secure when Payne made that bogey at 13, but I still wanted to make a putt to put it away. I wanted to have a four-shot lead when I came to 17, and I got it when I made a great three on the 15th. I hit a six-iron about eight feet from the hole and said to myself, ‘This is the one I’ve got to make.’

“When it went in, I didn’t exactly relax, but I felt more comfortable. Then, when he made another bogey, I had it nice and easy coming in.”

Stewart made four birdies in the first 12 holes and also made a difficult putt to save par on the 11th.

“When I got to 16 under, I thought I had a chance to get back at Nick, but the drive on 13 that cost me a bogey took the wind out of my sails,” Stewart said. “It was the first fairway bunker I had been in all week, and it came at a bad time.”

Jodie Mudd, former public links champion from Louisville, shot a 66 to share fourth place at 276 with Ian Woosnam of Wales, who had won the Monte Carlo and Scottish Opens the past two weeks. Woosnam had a 69.

Greg Norman, the pre-tournament favorite from Australia who shot a 76 Saturday, rallied for a 69 and finished at 277 with countryman Ian Baker-Finch. Peter Jacobsen shot himself out of contention with an eight on the par-four 17th hole, where he reached the green in six and took two putts.

Faldo played the 17th defensively all week. Three times he took a bogey by laying up his second shot short of the Road Bunker, which fronts the green and creates more bogeys than it does pars. Tommy Nakajima once reached the green in two, putted into the Road Bunker and ended up with a nine. Ever since, it was been known as the Sands of Nakajima.

“The only way to approach the Road Hole is with fear,” Faldo said. “You start thinking about your drive on that hole before you ever get to St. Andrews.”

Faldo said he had been pointing for this tournament since he missed a 15-foot putt on the final hole at Medinah, Ill., that would have put him in the U.S. Open playoff with Hale Irwin and Mike Donald.

“After I missed that putt, which I thought I had made, I said to myself that I was going to win the (British) Open, and I channeled everything in that direction,” Faldo said.

“I’m not a history buff, like Ben Crenshaw, but you don’t have to be a history buff to know that winning here at St. Andrews, where it all started, is something special. Every great golfer, at least just about every one, has walked across that bridge (over the Swilcan Burn), and to come up that last fairway knowing you’ve won the trophy, well, it’s just fantastic.”

When his last putt fell in the 72nd hole, the 6-foot-3 Englishman leaned down and kissed his caddie, Fanny Sunesson, on the cheek, and then hugged his wife, Gill, and his children, Natalie and Matthew. Sunesson, 22, is a Swede who is Faldo’s regular caddie.

“Fanny is part of the team,” Faldo said. “She works hard and doesn’t make mistakes. That’s why we’re doing well, because we’re keeping our mistakes to the minimum. Golf tournaments aren’t won by making great shots, they’re won by making the fewest mistakes.”

Faldo’s name now goes on the British Open trophy along with those of Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead, Tony Lema, Bobby Locke, Seve Ballesteros and all the way back to Tom Kidd, who won 11 pounds for winning in 1873.

Faldo, who turned 33 Wednesday, won $153,850.

The days are long gone since the British tabloids headlined “Foldo Faldo” after he lost a lead with nine holes to play in the 1983 British Open at Royal Birkdale.

It was that loss, despite his being the leading money winner on the European tour, that caused Faldo to take two years to completely revamp his swing and his game with golfing guru David Leadbetter of Orlando, Fla. During that time, he did not win a tournament as he hit balls by the thousands under Leadbetter’s close watch.

“Every time I would get discouraged and want to see some results, David kept telling me that I was getting closer,” Faldo said. “Fortunately, I believed him.”

Faldo finally broke through to win the Spanish Open early in 1987. In addition to the 1987 British Open and the two Masters, Faldo last year won the British PGA, British Masters, French Open and World Match Play Championship, in which he beat Ballesteros, 6-and-5, and then Woosnam, 1-up, in the finals.

He won the match against Woosnam with a 20-foot putt for an eagle three--and then donated his 100,000-pound prize to children’s charities.

Faldo wouldn’t say what he was going to do with his British Open prize, but he did say he was going to “let my hair down and celebrate” Sunday night.

And not in a bland way, either.

COMING ON STRONG A list of Nick Faldo’s performances in major tournaments since his victory in the 1987 British Open.

1987 British Open: Winner

PGA Championship: 28th

1988 Masters 30th

U.S. Open: Second (after playoff)

British Open: Third

PGA Championship: Fourth

1989

Masters: Winner (after playoff)