Colin Montgomerie was supposed to be teeing it up in the Shell Houston Open this week, at a course he used to play frequently when he was studying at the nearby Houston University. But this week sees the big Scot at The Spanish Open in Girona, just to get back some of the missing confidence he needs to win again. And what better place than Europe, a continent he owns, in a golfing sense.
But the big Scot is beginning to take on the appearance of a man who has lost his confidence on the greens and may well go the way of Faldo and Woosnam before him if he can't address his putting problems. That is the real purpose of playing a further two weeks adding on to his already hectic schedule.
"I'm not holing my fair share of putts and that's been my problem for the last year," said Montgomerie. "That's why I've added these two weeks, to try to get some confidence before the USPGA and the U.S. Open.
The normally confident Scot has been plagued with a series of poor putting rounds recently, none more so than in the Seve Ballesteros Trophy, when, on the final day, he missed every putt he looked at against Seve in the singles.
If Monty could putt in a major like he putted in at Brookline in last years Ryder Cup, he would win them all. But his biggest problem with the short stick is that his ball fails to reach the hole, a problem of Faldo's during his decline, which only means one thing, a lack of confidence of running the ball at the hole and having no fear of missing the returns.
Montgomerie has always admired Faldo for his tenacity and grit and ability to grind it out when things are not right. And Monty, who based his philosophy around the Faldo trait and tailored it to his own game is trying hard not to absail from the pinnacle of his career like his mentor before him.
The seven times European number one is confident that the problem is now fixed and that he is stroking the ball better now on the greens after a good look at his stroke.
"My putter blade is coming through past my body now," Said Montgomerie. "I was stopping on it. Let's see if that works.
And with more pressing concerns about chasing Darren Clarke home for the Order of Merit title, Monty knows that he has to get a streak going to keep pace with the burly Ulsterman Clarke.
The Majors and the three World Championship events are key to winning the Order of Merit for the 8th time and Monty knows that you have to be in them, to win them. But he is not in all of them.
"At the moment I'm not in the NEC. It's no good being the World number three. You have to be one of the top 12 Europeans on our rankings now to get your place and at the moment I've not qualified.
"There is so much money for the World Championships now, right or wrong, that just one win, even a second place, makes an awful lot of difference to our rankings. Darren proved that and good luck to him.
Montgomerie aims to win as usual this week, even with Langer's bagman Pete Coleman temporarily replacing Alistair Maclean, who is entertaining his new bride on honeymoon.
"Peter was a natural replacement for Alastair because Bernhard Langer and I have the same game -- I just play it quicker! It would be nice to win this week because when I won the 1994 Spanish Open it put me in the world's top 10 for the first time and I've never dropped out since."
