Sir Nick Faldo

In 1971, a thirteen-year-old boy arrived at Mannicotts with his mother Joyce to ask about golf lessons. Nick Faldo had watched Jack Nicklaus on television during the Masters that spring, and something in what he saw made him want to learn the game. The place where he would learn it was Welwyn Garden City Golf Club, the course that would become the foundation for everything that followed.

His golfing education began with six lessons under assistant professional Chris Arnold, then continued under head professional Ian Connelly, who coached and mentored him for more than a decade. What Connelly saw in those early years was not just talent but dedication of an uncommon kind. Faldo would cycle through Sherrardspark Woods with his clubs strapped to his back, arriving at the club to practise until his hands were raw. The image of that young cyclist, determined and alone on the woodland path, has inspired would-be professionals at Welwyn Garden City ever since.

From those Hertfordshire beginnings, Faldo built a career that would redefine British golf. He won his first Open Championship at Muirfield in 1987, becoming the first home player to claim the Claret Jug in sixteen years. Three years later, he won again at St Andrews, and in 1992 he returned to Muirfield to win a third time. No British golfer since Henry Cotton had won The Open three times. Across the Atlantic, Faldo claimed three Masters titles at Augusta National in 1989, 1990, and 1996. Six major championships in total, a record that placed him among the finest players Europe has ever produced.

In November 2009, Faldo received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, recognised for achievements in golf that made him the most successful British player of the modern era. He became only the second golfer to be knighted, following Sir Henry Cotton, who had received the honour in 1987. The boy who cycled through the woods to practise was now Sir Nick Faldo, but the connection to where it all began remained.

Welwyn Garden City Golf Club has never forgotten that its fairways and greens were where Faldo learned his craft. The club celebrates his story not as distant history but as part of its living identity. The woods through which he cycled are still there. The course where Ian Connelly taught him is still played. The story of raw hands and relentless practice is still told, not as myth but as fact, a reminder of what dedication looks like in its earliest form.

Faldo's career took him to Augusta and St Andrews, to Ryder Cups and record books, to places far beyond Hertfordshire. But the arc of that career, the foundation on which everything else was built, began in 1971 at a club where a mother brought her son to ask about lessons. What happened next was the result of talent, certainly, but also of coaching, commitment, and countless hours on a course that gave a young golfer the space to become great. Welwyn Garden City Golf Club remains proud to be where Sir Nick Faldo's story started, and where the example he set continues to matter.