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Arise, Sir Nick

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    Arise, Sir Nick

    Hard to argue with the merit of the award, Faldo has after all won as many Open Championships as Henry Cotton, the only other professional golfer ever to be knighted.

    What is odd is the timing of it - Faldo's last Open title came 17 years ago, and his last Major title 13 years ago. His most recent and notable contribution to golf was, er, losing the Ryder Cup as captain, despite it being widely recognised that Europe had far the better team.

    Still, like I say, increasingly these things get given to sportsmen and women simply for their achievements in terms of medals won, and as Faldo was the only golfer in the world to win as many as 6 majors in the 1980s and 1990s, his achievements are more worthy than most. I just wonder why it's taken over a decade to recognise them?

    #2
    Arise, Sir Nick

    It hasn't come for the standard of his jokes either. Like Steve Davis he's spent most of the time since he stopped winning trying to persuade us how amusing he is.

    Cotton was significant as well as winning for raising the status of the pro, so it's often said. So he's a kind of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

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      #3
      Arise, Sir Nick

      Faldo has done a lot for youth development - Nick Dougherty's one of the alumni of his "academy" - but his other significant contribution of the last decade has been boosting the coffers of divorce lawyers.

      Still, it's good for the profile of golf, I suppose, that Britain's best golfer of the last 50 years (possibly of all time since America began taking golf seriously) finally gets knighted, while rowers and cyclists and athletes a-plenty have picked up gongs, and even Trevor Brooking's got one.

      Maybe the honours committee are clearing the decks for knighting David Beckham and Ryan Giggs when they both retire next year.

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        #4
        Arise, Sir Nick

        Wouldn't it be great if one of them earned some respect by saying "stuff your knighthood?"

        Has any sportsman ever done that?

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          #5
          Arise, Sir Nick

          If any of them were likely to have done by their reputation, it would have been Sir Alex Ferguson, but he didn't - principally because all of this romantic drivel his fans like to weigh him down with about his "socialism" is a complete load of crap. He was heavily involved with giving reach-arounds to the horsey set at the time, too, as I recall.

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