Nick Faldo felt he was a ‘man on a mission’ going into The Open Championship in 1990 after what had happened to him at that year’s US Open.
Just over four weeks before the Major at St Andrews, the Englishman had been just a hair’s breadth away from making the play-off on the Sunday alongside Mike Donald and Hale Irwin.
After struggling with his driving across the four rounds, Faldo was nevertheless in a position to join the pair at the top of the leaderboard.
In his final round, the future six-time Major winner three-putted from 45 feet on the 16th hole for a bogey and then missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th to miss out on the top two by a single stroke.
That setback hit Faldo – who was fresh from winning the Masters – quite hard. With the Open coming just weeks later back in his homeland, however, it was a chance to reset.
While the English golf star’s slip-up was a difficult blow, it provided him all the motivation he needed to claim the British title at St Andrews.
‘I wish I would have been in the playoff because think hey, oh well we were 74 but that was all part of it,’ Faldo told he told the Major Moments podcast.
‘It was unbelievable motivation for me then for me to then go to St Andrews.
‘I went in there and I sat in the loo in the clubhouse and I promise you I was in tears. And I just vowed “I’m going to win at St Andrews” so that was it.
‘So I went to St Andrews on a mission – so it’s a pretty good trade
‘I pride myself that’s one of my obviously my best Majors to win. If you go to a Major really on a mission to win… some of them you go into [saying] “I feel good this week you never know what might happen” and you get in it and and you hang on.
‘But when I went then, and you know then it was only one man to beat, [and it was] so amazing how it all panned out again.
‘I mean it was just a pretty cool thing you have to put mind and body and the whole focus on playing that well and and if you set a goal, you have to keep driving for it.’
Faldo ended up getting the job done in some style – he came into the final day with a five-stroke lead before holding that advantage until he claimed the Claret Jug.
