Same ball, same number, and the pressure was there even before the round started. Sir Nick Faldo was on the first tee at the 1990 Augusta National with Jack Nicklaus, his hero and the greatest Masters champion, when he spoke about this moment in an interview.

They looked at their golf balls and saw that both were using a Titleist 1. One of them had to change it.

Faldo, speaking with Joe Buck on the Undeniable show, knew how important that moment was.

"I'm playing with Jack, so I thought, 'Wow, this is a bit of an omen,'" Faldo said.

"Because he was the only man to have won back-to-back Masters."

Jack Nicklaus offered to change his ball, but Faldo chose a different number and tried to forget about it. It didn’t help at first. He hit his first shot into a bunker, made a bogey, and it looked like the round was already going wrong.

But on the second tee, Faldo reset himself. He kept it simple and told himself, “One makes four.” After that, he settled down, and his round started to improve.

The 12th provided its own moment. Both men found the green at Augusta's most treacherous par-3, and Nick Faldo told Jack Nicklaus he was glad they didn't play it every day. Nicklaus replied he'd been playing it for 32 years.

"That's older than me, Jack," Faldo fired back. From there, he steadied himself, made four on the second, and found a rhythm through the closing holes—a performance that ultimately put him in position for the playoff.

That week, alongside Jack Nicklaus, the mindset first took hold—and by Sunday evening, it would win him the Masters.

Nick Faldo Revealed What Really Drove Him Through the 1990 Masters Playoff Against Ray Floyd

By Sunday evening, Faldo was in a sudden-death playoff against Ray Floyd with the Green Jacket between them. Most players think about winning in that moment. Faldo thought about something else.

"I am not putting my jacket on, Ray Floyd," he told himself and carried that thought into the playoff, all the way to the 11th hole.

Floyd's next shot climbed, hung, and dropped into the water. Faldo's brain went straight to the arithmetic. Floyd would make five. So what does four look like right now? He hit a half eight-iron at the flag, lagged the putt to within an inch, and the Masters was his for the second consecutive year.

Only Jack Nicklaus had defended the title before him, the same man whose ball number had rattled Faldo before the first tee shot of the week.

It all came full circle at Augusta, and Faldo walked away wearing the jacket.

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Shraabona Sengupta