European Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo has taken a lot of heat for his Ryder Cup Captain’s picks of Paul “Player Hater” Casey and Ian “I fold at majors like the pleats I would never wear” Poulter.

I personally think the media ought to lay off the poor guy. I mean, there’s a lot of bad picking going around, and at least Faldo seems to be doing a better job of it than John McCain.

So, defense of the once-robotic-now-droll one, I would like to point out Faldo’s wine label. According to a press release I received a few weeks ago, Faldo feels a close affinity for good land, whether it be linksland or vineyard land:

“Nick Faldo, the lead golf analyst for CBS and this year’s European captain and winner of the most number of points earned in the history of the Ryder Cup, is the man behind a line of easy-drinking wines from Australia. Few can question his performance on the golf course, but off the green, Faldo has been busy pursuing new interests, including wine. In 2000, Faldo collaborated with Katnook Estate, a renowned wine producer based in Australia’s finest grape growing region, Coonawarra.”

The wines are being billed as the perfect libation while watching the Ryder Cup. Although I haven’t yet tasted any of Faldo’s wines, they certainly have to be better than Hal Sutton’s name-brand chew.

That crap just made me puke, almost as much as the U.S. Team’s performance in 2004. Seriously.

In sum, I raise my glass (as of yet empty, while I await a promised sample…) to Nick Faldo, even though I still want him and his team to lose.

And hey, his picks were only one-half as bad as Paul Azinger’s…if only because he had only half as many.

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