English professional golfer on the European Tour, now mainly an on-air golf analyst Nick Faldo, defended his statement when he said that Sergio Garcia was ''useless'' in the 2008 Ryder Cup. Faldo was the captain of the 2008 team who lost to the US.
According to his statement, Garcia had emotional and physical problems at Valhalla and even told Faldo that he did not want to play.
But now, Faldo said that "useless" was a harsh use of words. But said that ''he wasn't the Sergio everyone knows now.''
Faldo said that during the tournament, Garcia had just broke up with his girlfriend told him he didn't want to play after the pairings already were in.
When Garcia was informed of this he said "Are you sure you didn't misquote him? That's unfortunate. I guess he doesn't feel European. That's the only thing I can think of. There's a lot of things I could say about Nick Faldo, but I'm not going to put myself down to his level."
Faldo also said "He was always labeled as the man who brings emotion and passion. We didn't have it that week. That's, in my opinion, how it looked and felt."
He told "Friday morning, I'm going up the 10th hole with him. I just put my arm around him and said, 'Are you good to go this afternoon?' And he said, 'Yes' to me. Then I get him on the 18th green and he says, 'I'm (expletive). I don't want to play anymore. I've been on antibiotics.' I told him he was on the tee in 30 minutes."
He explained that his comment stems from reacting on live television. He said "I agree that was harsh. Everybody immediately goes straight to him that 'Faldo says you were useless' when they don't know the circumstances. It's live television. It's half tongue-in-cheek. It's a throwaway line with no malice."
On the other hand, Graeme McDowell pointed out that Westwood and Garcia were benched for the first time in their Ryder Cup careers at Valhalla. He commented "You've got one of the best Ryder Cup pairings of all time being sat down on a Saturday afternoon of a Ryder Cup that we go on to lose. I'd say Sergio was fairly useless that afternoon, yeah. Because he wasn't able to play."
