Nick Faldo defends remark that Sergio Garcia was ‘useless’ in 2008 Ryder Cup

Nick Faldo might take a mulligan on calling Sergio Garcia “useless” in the 2008 Ryder Cup, but the captain of that European team stands by the criticism he leveled at the Spaniard during Friday’s opening round at Gleneagles.

Faldo, in his role as Golf Channel analyst, sparked a firestorm of outrage among Euro team members when he took issue with colleague Terry Gannon’s characterization of Garcia’s Ryder Cup play as “spectacular.” As the owner of a 16-8-4 Ryder Cup record teed off with Rory McIlroy in their morning fourball match, Faldo kind of agreed, but with one notable caveat.

“Most of them. Apart from one,” Faldo said. “He was useless. Half a point, bad attitude. Anyway, we move on, six years later.”

Um, not so fast, Sir Nick. Word, of course, reached Garcia and his mates after Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson beat him and McIlroy, 1-up, in the fourball match but the duo rallied to halve their contest against Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler in the afternoon foursomes.

“Are you sure you didn’t misquote him? That’s unfortunate,” Garcia, who actually earned a point in ’08 with two halves, told reporters after Europe ended the day with a 5-3 lead. “I guess he doesn’t feel European, that’s the only thing I can think of.

“You know, there’s a lot of things I could say about Nick Faldo,” added Garcia, who refused to take the bait, “but I’m not going to put myself down to his level.”

Fellow members of Team Europe came immediately to their comrade’s defense, with McIlroy wrapping his arm around his partner and saying, “You’re not useless.”

Later, an unabashed Faldo aired some dirty laundry about his former charge, telling the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson that a breakup with his girlfriend left Garcia depressed and wanting out of the tournament altogether.

“He was always labeled as the man who brings emotion and passion. We didn’t have it that week,” Faldo said about Garcia, who, Ferguson said, was dumped by Greg Norman’s daughter, Morgan Leigh Norman. “That’s, in my opinion, how it looked and felt.”

Faldo contended that after Garcia told him on Friday morning he was good to go in the afternoon, he backtracked.

“He says, ‘I’m [expletive deleted]. I don’t want to play anymore. I’m on antibiotics,’” said Faldo, who responded that he had a half hour before his tee time. “That was the tone of Sergio for the whole week. He wasn’t in it.”

While conceding that the term “useless” was a tad “harsh,” Faldo claimed he was just being cheeky.

“It’s a throwaway line with no malice,” said Faldo, who promised to provide a further explanation of his critique on Golf Channel, which yields the weekend broadcast to NBC and Johnny Miller, who just might toss a Molotov cocktail or two into the conflagration.

Stay tuned.