NICK FALDO'S new girlfriend chose not to give a public show of her feelings for him last night when he lifted his third US Masters.
Brenna Cepelak, a 21-year-old American for whom Faldo left his second wife, Gill, and three children after last September's Ryder Cup, was at Augusta. Yet it was the defeated Greg Norman whom Faldo hugged when the winning pull dropped.
Wives or girlfriends often accompany the anew champion to their news conferences at the end of the tournament, but 38-year-old Faldo did his alone. And when asked if Brenna, a former college golfer whom Faldo met last March in Arizona, had helped in his victory in any way, he replied: "Let's leave the personal bit out of it and keep it simple."
Their relationship has already been subjected to the sort of media scrutiny normally reserved for the British royals.
Last month Faldo spoke of how emotionally happy and content he was after "months of hell, courtesy of the British tabloids".
He added: "The worst thing was that if there was nothing to write they would make up a story that was totally untrue - and you would have no recourse.
"How do you stop it? Go to the Press Council? That takes months and by then it's all forgotten about.
"You ask for privacy and they listen in to your phone calls and they sit outside your house for months. It's not nice sitting inside knowing that 300 yards away there's someone with a lens trained on you, waiting for the picture they want.
"It's incessant. Brenna once had 27 messages on her answerphone, all the same, all from the same guy. They just want to wear you down.
"I don't have to imagine what Charles and Diana have gone through. I know what it's like. I've been through it. I expected the worst and we got exactly what we expected. I knew it would screw my golf up for a while."
Faldo returns to the European Tour for a fortnight next month. He is appearing in the Benson and Hedges International Open at The Oxfordshire, Thames, on May 16th-19th, and the following week's Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth.
Meanwhile, Bernhard" Gallacher, captain of Europe's triumphant 1995 Ryder Cup team, has praised Nick Faldo for his dramatic US Masters victory.
"It was amazing," said Gallacher, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday morning. "I really didn't think anyone could beat Norman.
"Greg looked apprehensive from the start and dropped a shot at the first hole, while Nick got off to his usual start.
"You know when you are playing Nick that he will grind it out, but I thought six shots was too much for him to make up.
"But the occasion got to Greg. The course is very hard and the greens are like playing on rock. It all went away from him and he could not recover."
Gallacher is confident Norman can recover from his galling experience. He said: "Greg has won too many majors to be a `choker'. The occasion simply got to him, but he will recover from it. He has a big ego.
"When you are playing Faldo he stays with you, just as he did against Curtis Strange in the Ryder Cup. Strange just could not get away from him and Nick won at the end."
While nick Faldo rejoiced, Colin Montgomerie was only too happy to get out of Augusta and turn his thoughts to the US Open in June instead.
The world number two, Montgomerie, "more confident than I have ever been" coming into the tournament, finished only 39th after taking an eight on the 500-yard 15th hole in both the third and fourth rounds.
