Team-mates defend Faldo

Fellow golfers have leapt to the defence of Nick Faldo after comments attributed to American Paul Azinger.

Days before the US Masters begins in Augusta, the American Ryder Cup captain has lit a fuse by claiming that players want nothing to do with Faldo and saying that there is "no way" Colin Montgomerie will be given a wildcard because of what Faldo thinks of him.

Azinger is reported saying: "The bottom line is that the players from his generation and mine really don't want to have anything to do with him. He did what he did as a player, and there are relational consequences."

But Darren Clarke says Faldo will make a "sensational" Ryder Cup captain, whatever opinion opposite number Azinger or anybody else has of him.

Clarke, the hero two years ago when he won all his three games just a few weeks after the death of his wife, said of Faldo and Azinger: "They've obviously had a few clashes in the past. The two of them don't see eye to eye - that's pretty much public knowledge."

Paul McGinley, who resigned as an assistant captain last September, insists he is "100 per cent" behind Faldo too.

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