GREEN-JACKETED Augusta member Danny Yates was introducing Nick Faldo to the assembled media. "You want Nick to make any comments before you have a go at him?" he inquired, with a rather unfortunate choice of words. To which Faldo forced a bleak smile before replying: "Sums it up, doesn't it?"

It wasn't a particularly promising preamble, but the 1989 and 1990 Masters, champion gradually warmed to his unofficial role as spokesman for the European challengers this week. The other 11 are: Seve Ballesteros, Alexander Cejka, David Gilford Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Costantino Rocca, Mark Roe, Gordon Sherry, Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam.

Despite problems of injury and loss of form, they have reason to walk tall, given that eight of them - Ballesteros, Faldo, Gilford, Montgomerie, Langer, Rocca, Torrance and Woosnam - made up two-thirds of the European side which triumphed over the US in the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill last September. Of the remainder, it is an especially significant occasion for 25-year-old Cejka, winner of the Volvo Masters last October.

While watching the 1985 event on television, the Czech-born German national set his sights on in Augusta. And he couldn't have had a more appropriate guide in practice this week than the champion of that fateful year, Bernhard Langer. "It was very interesting to see how Bernhard played the course," said Cejka whose rewards from golf, even at this early stage of his career, allow him to have a Ferrari Testarossa and a Porsche 911 at his home in Munich.

Yesterday, Faldo expressed amazement that an American scribe should question his desire to win the Masters for a third time. "Gosh, I've been thinking about this since the IPGA last August," he replied. My desire for the majors has never waned."

Despite missing the cut in the Players' Championship, he could reflect on a fairly encouraging start to his season in the US, having been runner-up to Mark O'Meara in the Mercedes Championship, tied eighth in the Buick Invitational and tied ninth in the Honda Classic. "Basically I've been playing nicely and I'm waiting for it to happen this week," he said.

He and Greg Norman agreed yesterday that Montgomerie was rightfully one of the favourites. I would have thought he had the game to win here, certainly from tee to green, said Faldo. He also has the desire to play to the best of his ability, week in week out. I don't think the general public appreciate just how difficult that can be."