NICK Faldo is Britain's greatest-ever golfer - revered as a hero for his six Major titles and record as the leading points scorer in Ryder Cup history.

But many also regard him as a selfish, emotionally-cold loner to whom winning tournaments came first and his marriages and young family second.

Thanks in no small way to his maligned portrayal in the media over the past 30-years, Faldo has become the most paradoxical figure in modern sport.

Two friends confirmed his casting as a Jekyll and Hyde character when I excitedly told them who I was soon interviewing.

"Get me his autograph - he's brilliant", said one, while the other commented: "Faldo - he's nasty. He told me to shut up when I was a little girl watching him at Sunningdale."

Which other sportsman could provoke such contrasting responses in two people, aged 54 and 24?

But perhaps his new autobiography, Life Swings, can enable the truth to be known and banish all the pre-conceptions.

Will the real Nick Faldo at last stand up?

It's 12.30pm in Basingstoke's WH Smith store on a Thursday. Faldo is shortly to arrive to sign copies of his hefty 375-page tome.

The public are keen. His mass appeal accounts for a queue of all ages and sexes snaking 100 metres around the premises.

Suddenly, there he is, striding to the signing-table with that purposeful walk so often seen on fairways across the globe. People begin to murmur and point.

Hair speckled with blond highlights, his casual shirt undone enough to reveal an expensive gold chain, the 6ft 3in star looks tanned and relaxed as he sits down.

"Hi, thanks for coming," he says with a smile as the first of many a fan is greeted, has their book personalised and leaves happy.

An hour later, Faldo has just finished signing his 200th goodwill message and signature.

As we leave the shop-floor and get into a tiny service lift up to the interview room, he breaks the ice by self-deprecatingly - given his renowned dedication to practice - joking: "I warm up with 100 autographs every morning!"

We are then shown into a ramshackle room and for the next 20 minutes I have a sole audience with the man who, I must confess, is my hero.

There are many reasons why. As an impressionable 16-year-old, his triumph in the epic clash-of-the-titans tussle with Greg Norman over the fabled Augusta National course for the coveted US Masters Green Jacket was just awesome.

I tell him that "The Norman Conquest" was the first chapter I turned to after receiving the book - to see how he put into words the pathos of utterly destroying a rival in front of an audience of millions.

Recalling the momentous battle with humility, he says: "It was an amazing day. I am very fortunate people can remember that bit of sporting history so vividly, but I did feel very sorry for Greg. There's no doubt it has affected him as a person.

"People always ask me was it two or three British Opens I won, when and where I won them, but 99 per cent of people know I beat Greg at Augusta in '96 for the Masters.

"It was such a dramatic day and had everything people enjoy about sport - a favourite and underdog fighting it out - with one coming from behind to win."

Like many glued to the screen during that fateful Sunday, it was riveting as the drama came to a head on the par five 13th, the first time Faldo was ahead.

After Norman found water at the infamous Golden Bell par three 12th, taking five to Faldo's three, the Englishman had overturned the Australian's six-shot lead and was now in front by two.

"It was now mine to lose," he explains. "I was so tense, but was determined to show him I could handle the pressure."

With Norman's drive in the woods on pine needles, Faldo was on the fairway, toying between a five wood and two iron.

"The TV cameras and commentators really helped create the tension. 'He doesn't know what he's doing', they were saying.

"It's tough to describe the shot I had. The ball was above my feet on a downhill lie and twisted - nothing is flat there. It was like hitting a ball off a bank of rock.

"There's no way you can prepare for a shot like it, and then you have Rae's Creek to get across too. It's one of the hardest shots I've ever had to play in my life."

Did he have a feeling he would win when he nailed the two iron shot to the heart of the green and two-putted for birdie?

"You can never count your chickens. It only kept me two shots ahead, but even when I got four in front of Greg, I didn't count them.

"It was only when I was on the 18th green I did. Then I rolled in the putt for a birdie and won by five. I could do nothing wrong at that stage."

Even more remarkable was that his third Green Jacket came in the aftermath of his messy public separation from second wife Gill, with whom he has three children - Natalie, Matthew and Georgia.

"It was a big effort and tough to keep going mentally with everything that was going on off the course," Faldo says.

There then comes a startling revelation - a far cry from his perceived cold-hearted persona.

"I was in hell for about five years. I never considered suicide, but there was one silly moment, when I was going through all my turmoil with Gill and missing the kids desperately, when I wanted to crash the Porsche on a way to a fishing trip.

"I just had the urge to smash the car up into a wall and leave everything to chance, but, luckily, I arrived at the riverbank safely."

He adds: "It was crazy that I won in the middle of all that hurt. Maybe it was a case of me proving the doubters wrong."

So far, Faldo has been everything I hoped he would be. Friendly, riveting, frank and, well, human. But it was time to probe a bit more into his psyche.

When you've been the world's number one and sporting powers diminish with age, how do you come to terms with the reality you aren't the player you were, that the glory days are behind you?

Looking to the ceiling in thought, his sentences do not come out comfortably, but they are brutally honest.

"I haven't been able to really commit to my golf as I once did over the last few years. I have felt very frustrated in that time.

"I play to win events and when you are not close, or only there once in a blue moon, it gets you down.

"Golf has been getting very frustrating for me. You have to accept that your time is done, but it's very difficult too.

"The book probably does mark the end of my serious playing career. Now I have to relax on a golf course and treat it as fun to be there, which is not easy."

He continues: "Maybe my best was back in the early '90s and I had my 10 years at the top - something players rarely achieve.

"I can look back with pride. Winning the 1990 Open Championship at St Andrews is my proudest moment. It was at the home of golf and, unlike my previous three Major wins, I could enjoy playing up 18 with the title already secure.

"My walk up over the Swilken Bridge and being able to wave to the crowds knowing I was the champion was very special."

But for someone who has been so driven, Faldo and nostalgia make strange bed-fellows.

However, at 47 and happily married for the third time, to Valerie, and with baby daughter Emma to care for, Faldo is preparing himself, albeit reluctantly, to grow more accustomed to talking about his halcyon feats.

He knows it's time to focus on his next great challenge - reducing his golf schedule and committing to family life.

Yet it is when discussing his family that Nick Faldo, soppy, loving husband and doting father, is revealed. All the misconceptions are stripped and instantly lost.

And if he puts as much effort into his family as he did with his golf, he will enjoy another major success.

The real Nick Faldo has finally stood up.

Life Swings, Nick Faldo's autobiography, is out now, priced £18.99.