Nick Faldo squashes LIV rumors, says Greg Norman wouldn’t want him anyway

Nick Faldo wanted to introduce you to his dog.

“This is London, I thought I’d introduce you to London, she’s our sweetie,” he said, embracing his dog in a Monday morning video posted to social media. “I wanted you to see her face right now because when you get to Montana you’re going to see a big smile on her face — because she loves it up there.”

But that’s not really what Faldo wanted to share. The 64-year-old six-time major champ and lead analyst for CBS’ golf coverage announced last week that he’s stepping away at the end of the season. That announcement inspired a flurry of speculation that Faldo was actually about to announce his commitment to broadcast for LIV. But on Monday, with his dog London as witness, Faldo made it clear that isn’t the case.

“One little thing that’s been talked about a lot is of course the 54 tour,” Faldo said, referring to LIV. “And I thought I would just say, No. 1, I am retiring because of travel, I don’t want to travel. No. 2, if I do call anything, I would like to call championship golf. And No. 3, do you think Greg [Norman] wants to see my boat race — my face — around for about 10 weeks a year or more? I don’t think so, so I’ll give you that clue.”

There are layers of slights in there. Calling it the “54 tour.” Implying that LIV isn’t “championship golf.” And reminding the world that while Norman may have held the world No. 1 ranking, Faldo came out on top in the biggest events, winning six major championships to Norman’s two. Their rivalry has been periodically reignited in recent years, with the two butting heads over broadcasting styles. And Faldo hasn’t minced words when talking about LIV, either — on the broadcast this weekend he openly questioned Brooks Koepka’s decision to leave the PGA Tour.

“He’s a wonderful example of the challenge of playing the Tour,” Faldo said on the Travelers broadcast. “I mean, we have one thing called missing the cut, which is what, suddenly, they don’t like. But that’s part of our sport, to commit to an event. And Brooks is a wonderful example. He started way out, I believe, on the Asian Tour, then he wins in Europe. We were there on CBS to watch him win in Phoenix. He wins four majors, he’s climbed his way up. Last week he’s saying, ‘Get out of my face, all I want to do is play golf and go and win.’ And somebody then hit his number, and off he goes.

“And I’m really surprised at that, because I know when he’s out there, it’s a boatload of cash. It’s also a boatload of mandatory personal appearances and that sort of thing they’re gonna be doing. I’m sure he’s gonna find that gets very old very quickly,” Faldo continued. “And you know, the other very important thing is enjoyment. You’ve got to enjoy what you do in life. You can’t be standing on the golf course and thinking, ‘I don’t know the reason why I’m out here.’ You can’t — you just can’t fake that. It’s an important thing in life to know what you’re out there for and you think, I love this, I’m really loving it. And I cannot see how these guys right now think it’s a serious challenge.”

So no, neither Faldo nor his dog are headed to the LIV tour. Instead they’re headed to Montana, just outside of Bozeman, where they have a farm under construction.

“We’re heading to Montana, Linds and I have got a really great project, going to build ourselves a farm, always after Covid started, thought about that. Now we’re going to do it. We just want to make the puppies really happy.”

“Linds” refers to Lindsay De Marco, Faldo’s fourth wife, whom he wed in 2020. The two have a barn (and a Twitter account!) underway. It sounds like they’re about to have more time to focus on the rest.

In the meantime, Faldo is feeling the love.

“I wanted to thank you all so much, it’s now been a week since I retired from full-time commentary, I wanted to really say thanks to everybody. The support and well wishes has been really, really nice so thanks so much for that,” Faldo said. He laid out his upcoming schedule, which includes an Elton John concert at Vicarage Road, the home stadium of Watford FC. It’s only fitting that Sir Nick is making the trip; Sir Elton is on a farewell tour of his own.

We don’t expect he’ll be joining LIV, either.