GOLF: Nick Faldo had a flashback, leading to a moment of déjà vu, in the first round of the European Masters in Switzerland yesterday.

Faldo, who is busily reinventing himself as a golfer, had an opening round of 66, five under par, to finish only one behind Robert Karlsson, and alongside the 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie and Matthias Gronberg. It is a healthy position on the leaderboard and afterwards he revealed the rather odd reason why.

"The course," he said, "reminds me of Hilton Head in South Carolina. The greens are so small you can be 20 feet from the pin and not be on the putting surface."

Conversely, of course, if you are on the putting surface you are likely to have a good birdie chance - as Faldo discovered way back in 1984.

It was then that he won the Sea Pines Heritage Classic, his first big international win and one at which the most infamous nickname in golf was coined. In his previous event, the US Masters, he had let slip a promising position and the caddies, cruelly, coined El Foldo.

However, his round yesterday consisted of pars, three birdies and an eagle, which gave him the lead for much of the day and which brings in the déjà vu bit. The last time the 45-year-old Faldo led a European Tour event was in Crans in 1997 at the end of the third round when he was 14 under par. He went on to finish tied for sixth.

Although he is making some satisfactory scores he has yet to convince himself he can win again.

"I'm taking that step by step," he said. "I'm just trying to be very disciplined out there, trying to do what I want to do on each shot. If I keep doing that, we shall see.

"It is good to feel a bit of pressure because that is when you learn what to do with your golf swing, learn the key things that have to happen to get the good shots when you want them."

That Faldo, six times a major championship winner, should talk thus is indicative of how far he had regressed. Indeed yesterday he said that after the Open at Royal Lytham St Annes last year he felt ready to retire.

"I was really down after that week," he said. "I was arguing with people I should quit. I said: 'Come on, come up with a good solution or reason why I should carry on. Why can't I just build golf courses and have a bit of fun'?"

He has cut down on his practice routine. "In the mid-1980s, when I was working on the rebuild of my swing with Lead (David Leadbetter) I would hit 1,500 balls a day at least. By three o'clock in the afternoon I couldn't grip the club, so I'd go for a swim and then, like a mug, I'd come back and hit some more. Now I deliberately go the other way. I try to make it 100 balls max."

The course at Crans is 6,000 feet up in the Swiss Alps and in winter forms the nursery slopes for the resort. The greens are often covered in metres of snow for months on. Yesterday the world number three Ernie Els criticised them, saying the surfaces were not up to tour standard. Nor did he like their design.

"It's the same sort of green whether you have a three-iron or a sand iron in to it. They just don't fit," said the British Open champion after his round of