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The process is not cut and dried, is it?
We don’t have a process, bottom line. The committee will meet and we’ll have a decision. I don’t even know if you formally have to apply in writing that you want the job, or whether you assume they know from reading the papers. We have been asking the Tour what the procedure is, but we haven’t had an answer.

Do you think one of the pluses for you, in terms of having respect as a captain, is that you have had the career that the young players – Casey, Poulter, Rose and so on – would aspire to?
I think so. Exactly. I’m the guy they probably watched when they were youngsters. But just going back, so if I have upset a few people on the committee, I haven’t upset any of the players, so far as I know. The problem is that some people have got a story...and this is the biggest thing I’ve learned in life. There are two sides to every story. You should never make a judgement when you don’t have two sides to a story. That’s something I’ve really learned. I get internal issues in the office now, and I say that if there aren’t two sides to it, I don’t want to know. So who knows what happens. Jumping to the Gang of 4 thing [whereby Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and José Maria Olazábal sought permission to undertake an independent audit of the Tour’s books], the first comment I heard about my involvement was: “Hasn’t he got enough money? What does he want more money for?” I went “What?” All we asked was to put a few questions. I’m sure that comment swept around the Tour. It seems that money is a big issue. Appearance money was a big issue way back. It would burn some guys to think that I was getting bloody £100,000 or whatever – I got an awful lot of money in that era – simply for teeing it up. In some tournaments, I think I was getting pretty much the first prize for teeing it up. No wonder they felt cheesed – “Who the bloody hell does he think he is?” But it’s very simple. If you want it, join the club. Go and hit a million balls and get in there and compete. It’s very competitive, our sport. If you want it, you have to strive to compete. Without appearance money in Europe, we [Faldo, Ballesteros, Langer and others] would have all gone to America full-time. It was triple the prize-money. Appearance money saved the Tour. It dragged everyone back. Did they think we were all going to rush back to play some of the poorer courses?

With the Ryder Cup again, given the comparative age differences, does it surprise you that Monty [who is 41] has put his hat in the ring to be captain in 2006?
Yeah, I was surprised at that. Very. He comes alive; he’s brilliant at the Ryder Cup – the last two, two or three. If not four. He’s obviously thinking ‘I’ve had enough of this’, but who knows? Time goes on. Maybe he’d love to go out having got the winning point this last time; quite a nice way to go rather than doing another one and it goes wrong – you only get half a point or the team loses.

On to business. In the book you talk about some things you wish you had done differently. What fundamental lesson have you learned from the past?
It’s like I touched on before. If you are going to get involved in business, you have to be hands-on. Simple as that. It’s big learning curve. I read the book If I’d Known Then What I Know Now, and the bottom line to that is that you can’t blame anyone else when it goes wrong if you can sort it out. You can only blame yourself. But it’s hard to do both – to be a player and trying to generate business or build a brand. You can’t do both properly, because once you get involved with the other side, you take your attention away from the playing end. This is what I’ve found. It feeds into your mind. You’re on the range

trying to practise and you’re getting phone calls and some business thing is winding you up and you haven’t got total attention on what you’re doing. But we need to start building the brand now. I’ve got a very good name – I’m the only Nick Faldo in the whole blooming world.

Nick Faldo hits the 93-yard wedge shot that set up his vital par on the last hole against Curtis Srange at Oak Hill in the 1995 Ryder Cup. Faldo made four to Strange’s five to win his match and steer Europe to a remarkable comeback victory. In his new book, he writes: “When I addressed the ball to make my third shot, for the very first time in my career my legs went completely. From the waist down I turned to rubber...”