Nick Faldo says Luke Donald has it all

Sir Nick Faldo reckons Luke Donald has everything he needs to end his major drought at Augusta this week.

The world number one is rivaling fellow Englishman Lee Westwood for the dreaded ‘best player without a major’ tag and will again be one of the favourites when he tees it up for the Masters.

Donald finished tied fourth last season and Faldo – the last Briton to win at Augusta back in 1996 – thinks this could be his year.

Faldo told Sky Sports: “Luke is one of the guys who has won in the last month, he played great last year and he was right there. He has learnt from that experience. I think Luke has all the qualities that you need.”

Britain has never been so strongly represented at Augusta, with the world’s top three players and four of the world’s top 10 hailing from these Isles.

But Faldo is surprised that none of the contenders this week have asked for his advice heading into the tournament.

The three-time Masters champion said: “I remember Poults (Ian Poulter) came to me three years ago saying ‘I’d like to pick your brains’ and he never came back.

Tiger Woods is once again the bookies’ favourite this week following his first win on the PGA Tour for almost four years in the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago. But Faldo does not see the four-time champion as the dominant force around Augusta he once was.

“The big difference now is that in the past – and Tiger hasn’t won it since ’05 – he was beating Phil (Mickelson), Ernie (Els) and maybe Vijay (Singh) back in that era. Now there are 10 guys he’s got to beat and maybe they are not as scared of him nowadays as they used to be.”