Tony Jacklin takes a look at the job Nick Faldo has done so far as Europe's Ryder Cup captain.
Jacklin says Faldo commands respect from his team
As a veteran of 11 Ryder Cups, Tony Jacklin certainly knows what he's talking about when it comes to the world's most famous golf event.
After seven appearances as a player, Jacklin is perhaps best remembered for his fine achievements as captain of Europe's team in four successive Ryder Cups between 1983 and 1989.
He will once again be gracing the famous competition this year when he joins the Sky Sports commentary team as a studio guest in Valhalla for live coverage of the 2008 Ryder Cup.
Ahead of the big tee-off, he told us what he has made of the man who has Europe's fate on his shoulders in 2008, Nick Faldo.
Jacklin, who met with Faldo to discuss the captaincy three weeks ago, gives his opinions on Faldo's controversial decision to pick Ian Poulter ahead of the in-form Darren Clarke and also to use Jose Maria Olazabal as his sole assistant at Valhalla.
How do you think Faldo will get on as captain?
I don't know what his personal situation is with each member of the team, I suspect he already knows them quite well. But as far as experience goes he will have no problem at all as an eleven-times player.
But he's going to have a lot of respect from the players especially the younger ones. I don't know what his one-on-one relationships are like but since he's picked the team I suspect he's taken the time to contact all of them and I think he's going to do fine. I don't think that will be a problem for Nick at all.
I was with him at Wentworth, a couple of days before he made his picks, and I think he's going to do a good job. He wants to get this job done. I know he's still very competitive and Paul Azinger is a great adversary of his, and he wants to win the Ryder Cup for Europe.
Do you think he got his captain's picks right?
I think Casey was a shoo-in. He's been playing some excellent golf during the last few months. I suspect the choice of Poulter would be the one that would cause some controversy from the European end, especially as he didn't come back to play the event at Gleneagles and try and make the team on merit.
At the end of the day Nick went on world ranking. I talked to him a little bit about Darren about what he could have bought in terms of experience and it was his decision that the man who was highest on the world ranking should get the spot.
He was impressed by Poults' second placed finish at The Open, the way he handled that situation.
Do you think Faldo would benefit from more support as captain?
We talked about that. He was asking me a lot of questions when we got together. I think you've got to know all your players yourself. You've got to look them in the eye and on that basis know how they're feeling.
You have to have this one-on-one situation with all your team members and I think that's his intention, and on that basis he's going to know who is doing what. It's a challenge to keep in touch with everything that's going on once the tournament starts but he's very comfortable with Jose Maria Olazabal and this is his choice.
He's made that decision that he only wants the one guy and that's it. He's the captain and until we see what the result is we've got to back him up.
