DO NOT accuse Nick Faldo of hanging around. With one Ryder Cup scheduled to start in three months, Faldo has his mind fixed on the next, 27 months away.

Faldo, who will captain the Europe team in the United States in 2008, has chosen his vice-captain for the match in Louisville, Kentucky, and the two men have spent time working on ideas to help the team to bond with one another. Faldo wants to make sure that the atmosphere in the team is as open as it can be and he is wondering how best to get to know his team members.

So, who is this vice-captain? For a moment Faldo looked as though he wished he had not revealed that he had chosen one. “I’m not saying who it is,” he said. “You’ll have to find out yourself. I will tell you, though, that Fanny Sunesson [his long-time caddie] will be the caddie master and that I want four assistants so that I can have one with each match and that way I can keep in touch.

“It might be an idea to have a sit-down with 30 or 40 of the guys early on and see what they think and tell them what’s on my mind. I have had lots of Ryder Cup captains and if I can pick the best from each of them I shall be doing very well. Think of it — the emotion of Seve [Ballesteros], the tactics of Tony [Jacklin], the diplomacy of [Bernard] Gallacher.

“What I’ve got for my guys is that I’ve been there. I have got my ideas as to how to practise. I know that Wednesdays and Thursdays of the Ryder Cup are almost a week’s work in themselves. I need to use any skills I have got as a communicator to get across to my team that I want to do as much as I can to make their life easy.”

Faldo has trouble with his wives — he has just announced the separation from his third — but he has no trouble with children. At a clinic for juniors in northwest Ireland last week, he appeared at ease, using a young boy and then a young girl to demonstrate some of his swing theories. On occasions, Faldo can be quiet, distant and aloof, but this time he was relaxed, funny and informative.

There are two links courses at Ballyliffin Golf Club in Co Donegal and it is the Old that Faldo and his design team refurbished. Faldo cut a tape to reopen it and for the two days before he had worked with nine members of Team Faldo, his promising juniors, including Kiran Matharu and Rory McIlroy, two of the world’s best. “We started at 7 and we didn’t stop until 9 at night,” Faldo said. “We were in the gym at 7am. Then we did golf exercises. I have a sports therapist from the Mayo Clinic [the medical practice in the United States] over to talk to them. We did chipping sessions, I set them skills tasks. They were in my ear for two solid days. They are all mini-stars, but none is the finished article yet. “Some have got great attitudes, some are good physically, some mentally. The physical, mental and technical aspects are the areas we concentrate on. I am learning how to communicate with them. I want them to tell it to me straight.”

Faldo forecasts that at least one Faldo Junior Series graduate will compete in the Ryder Cup by 2010 and Nick Dougherty is close to this year’s team. But the winner of six major championships is wary of making excessive claims on behalf of the young players he has been involved with, even though he would surely get huge pleasure if one did what he achieved.

“It is going to be tough for anyone to match what I did,” Faldo said. “There are more golfers who can win now. Becoming the best in the world was one of my goals. Many golfers say they want to be the best in the world, too. But how comfortable are they climbing the ladder? On each rung there is the little fellow waiting to sabotage their efforts by saying to them, ‘You can’t handle this.’ I guess I could.”

Faldo will be 50 in July 2007 and although he has not said he will not compete on the Champions Tour, nor has he said that he will. His life seems to fall into four categories at present. The first is his family. Two girls and one boy by Gill, his second wife, were born between 1986 and 1993 and a fourth, a girl, by Valerie, his third wife, was born in 2003.

The second category is his work as a golf-course designer, which takes him all over the world. Nick Faldo Design has 18 projects under way and more than six more in discussion. Then there is the Faldo Junior Series and it is likely that next year he will be back regularly on American television commentating on golf. ABC has virtually given up covering golf, so Faldo is in negotiation with two American channels that recognise that his perceptive insights, while not always what the players want to hear, are welcome to the ears of the viewers.

“I enjoy the commentary work,” he said. “The feedback from my work with ABC was good. Being in the public eye has had a powerful effect on Faldo Design. The amount of work has doubled since I’ve been on TV. It is nice to go to tournaments with a purpose [to commentate] and not be scratching around playing, coming 50th.”

Golf on television in the US is in a slump, however. Audiences used to soar when Tiger Woods was in contention, but no longer.

“Now that I am the other side of the ropes, I think that golf is very quiet,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like going down and giving the players a poke with a sharp stick. It’s as bad as it has been for years. Formula One has shown how to make a sport popular. The drivers do more. Golf has to improve its appeal. This is as crucial a time for it as any in the past 40 years.”