Sam Torrance has unloaded on Nick Faldo and lavished praise on Paul McGinley in an interview for Bunkered magazine.
Faldo, the most decorated European golfer in the last quarter of a century, guided Europe to their only Ryder Cup loss in this century back in 2008. Never popular with the press, Faldo shipped much abuse for the performance and was deemed by many to be psychologically unfit for the role.
His players meanwhile, one of whom had just won two majors in a row and amassed a grand total of half a point from four games, emerged largely unscathed. During the last Ryder Cup, Faldo dubbed Garcia's performance that year as 'useless'
To say that right in the middle of the Ryder Cup, what was the arsehole thinking about?
Really, it was pathetic from Faldo. I’ve no idea where he was coming from with that stuff. You can even quote me on that, I don’t care. He’s an arsehole. It was beyond belief that one of our greatest-ever players would come out with a comment like that.
Torrance suggested that it was Faldo, and not Garcia, who lacked the team ethos - though, in fairness to Faldo, he remains Europe's highest points scorer in the history of the Ryder Cup.
Torrance heaped praise on McGinley, describing him as 'the best captain there has ever been, there’s no question about that in my mind. He was absolutely extraordinary.
