It seems as if he decided to tee it up here as much for a bonding session with his son Matthew, who caddied for the old man, as for any serious competitive aspirations. It was no surprise at all when Faldo missed the cut with rounds of 79 and 73 and climbed back into the television booth.

Equally, it wasn't as if turning 50 last Wednesday suddenly entitled him to hold forth about issues affecting the game. As a six-time major champion, and as Britain's finest ever player, he doesn't need anyone's permission to offer an opinion.

So it was that earlier in the week he made his controversial remarks about the current generation of younger players being too "chummy", and his perception that they lunch together and "then go off to play for a million dollars".

In his day when Europe ruled the rankings, he claimed that Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle or Ian Woosnam would never have socialised together during a tournament.

They were driven, highly focused, out to win majors and not friends.

Faldo made the point that he would have turned up with the expressed intention of winning a major, so on that basis he exonerated both Tiger Woods . . . "He doesn't give away any secrets" . . .

and curiously, Justin Rose, who despite his impressive form this season, hasn't necessarily exhibited much of the blinkered ambition of his one-time mentor.

The criticism came against the backdrop of Europe's failure to produce a single major champion since Paul Lawrie triumphed here in 1999, but if his words were designed to provoke a positive reaction from some of the players, they failed abysmally.

In fact, when Faldo insisted that he, Ballesteros and the other top Europeans of his generation had to "win to create a future, now you can be a millionaire in a year" it smacked of sour grapes. The existence of a system which generates fast bucks on and off the course is hardly the fault of the modern player.

If he had simply emphasised the unyielding approach he had employed in his prime, then no noses would have been put out of joint, however, he was saying categorically that what he did was right and that what he saw as complacency among the current players was wrong.

Having survived the immediacy of live television without making any gaffes, this was more reminiscent of the Faldo of old who frequently engaged the vocal chords long before the brain.

"I can assure you that every player who's out there wants to win a major, " said Niclas Fasth currently ranked 20th in the world. "The fact that some of the players are my friends makes no difference."

Luke Donald's response was that it would be a "pretty lonely life if you didn't have any friends" while Rose insisted there was no complacency. "I feel I play my best golf when I create a relaxed frame of mind and enjoy myself to a certain extent." Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington, who could hardly be regarded as a loser who lunches, was more scathing about Faldo's reference to easy money on the tour. "What? Nick Faldo didn't have a comfortable lifestyle?"

Given the track record of Europe's finest at the majors in the past eight years, there may be a need for some of the players to refine their approach on the course as well as during their practice sessions, but who, they may ask, is Faldo to pronounce on issues of lifestyle?

One of the game's most singleminded competitors in his time, and a self-confessed loner, he has gone through three marriages, while Ballesteros, who Faldo held up as a template for the ultimate winner this week, has also experienced the pain of a divorce. More relevantly perhaps, the Spaniard now comes across as a more forlorn, subdued person since his game deteriorated to the point of no return.

Instead of putting the players down, Faldo might have taken the time to explain the toll that an obsessive quest for success can sometimes take on a player's personal life. What would he have made of the handful of French players who remained on at Loch Lomond last Sunday to congratulate Gregory Havret for winning the Scottish Open? Another example of excessive chumminess?

What too of Europe's recent Ryder Cup record of three wins in a row? At a time when the Americans are at a loss to explain their miserable match play performances, much has been made of the strong European team spirit.

"That spirit is there for the matches, but it doesn't necessarily last, " said Harrington after the record-equalling victory at the K Club last year. "There are hugs the week after, then the next week high-fives, the week after handshakes, the week after that we're just saying hello, and then eventually we'll be blanking eachother."

It is possible that when he made his remarks that Faldo forgot for a moment that he happens to be the Ryder Cup captain for next year's matches in the US. There was some speculation that he might have been trying to engage in some subtle movitation of the players who will be in his team, but apparently there was no strategy, no element of cunning in his words. All he succeeded in doing was alienating some of his charges.

"It wasn't directed at individuals, " he explained later. "The players have got to get in there and really feel the experience of it all at a major. Coming to the media centre, going home, sleeping on a lead, teeing off at 3.15 and having all the time to think about it. That's all a huge part of the mental side of the game."

No one would deny that, but the overriding implication again is that many of the European players are not dedicated or driven enough to step up and win a major.

As opening remarks go in a Ryder Cup context, the omens are not good for Faldo's leadership.

It would be typical of Faldo in the lead-up to the matches against the USA that one of the first things he was to do was to get in contact with Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Harrington, Rose and Donald and invite them to lunch.

He probably wouldn't see the irony in that.