Sir Nick Faldo has a party trick if the people he’s with start debating the politics of Donald Trump. He rings the man himself.
That’s right, one of Britain’s greatest-ever golfers is good friends with the President of the United States. A serene partnership that Sir Keir Starmer could only dream of.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, though, when his wife won the coveted crown of Mrs Conservative US in 2012. Lady Lindsey De Marco is Faldo’s fourth wife, he’s apparently her seventh husband, and they make quite the power couple.
Linsdey’s backstory is the sort of soap opera you only get stateside. Obsessed with climbing the social ladder, she has reportedly churned through seven marriages and one of her former husbands, Randy Heine, claims she was a topless dancer in a bar – though she denies this.
That’s not the half of it. She has previously been convicted for drug offences alongside Heine, gone by at least 18 different names, and lived in more than 25 cities.
These days, she moves in elite Republican circles, even posing with Trump alongside her husband at a rally in Montana. She goes by the glitzy nickname of Lindz and, according to Daily Mail sources, revels in being referred to as a Lady.
Sir Nick Faldo (right) and his wife Lindsey De Marco (left) are friends with Donald Trump
Sir Nick and Lindsey met in 2018 and married in 2020; he is her seventh husband, and she is his fourth wife
She is described by one ex-husband as a former topless dancer, but she denies this
They’ll have to take a step back at the moment. Sir Nick recently underwent open-heart surgery after learning he was suffering with an enlarged aorta. The surgery was successful and he has returned to their home, 125 acres of farmland in Montana with dogs, cats, and cows.
Faldo also has a special occasion to look forward to in April: the 30-year anniversary of his third and final Masters triumph in Augusta. Quite how he will mark it remains to be seen but, for a man who spent a total of 97 weeks ranked as world number one, he has every right to remind us of it.
Lindsey and Sir Nick met in 2018 and married in December 2020. The couple had planned to get married at Kensington Palace, but settled for a ceremony in the Florida Keys after the original event was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
They lead a happy life on their ranch. In 2022, he packed in commentating to spend more time with her on the Faldo Farm, near the city of Bozeman, where they have constructed their dream home. They enjoy horseriding, spending time in nature, and eating good food.
It’s a marked contrast to the chaos which seemingly enveloped Lindsey’s life in prior years.
At one stage, she worked as a manager for one of Mr Heine’s businesses which was raided by drugs officers, The Tobacco Emporium.
Lindsay pleaded no contest and received a $250 fine and six months probation, but two years later she struck a deal and entered a guilty plea to one charge of ‘use of interstate conveyance to ship drug paraphernalia’. For that, she was sentenced to six months of house detention.
Among her former husbands was Colonel Nicholas De Marco, a ‘career officer’ in the legal wing of the US Air Force who is believed to have been her third husband and fourth marriage.
Lindsey, who now goes by ‘Lindz’, is said to be delighted at having her status as a Lady
They were invited to Donald Trump’s second state visit to Great Britain in September
They spend a lot of time in nature, on horseback, or eating good food
She also married Thomas Bracken before wedding multi-millionaire Scott Sangalli, who is believed to have been close to failed US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
When she won the title of Mrs Conservative US 2012, she said: ‘One side or size doesn’t fit all, the liberal agenda isn’t for everyone.
‘The pageant sends out the message to women that being a conservative woman or young lady is a choice like any other.
‘If it’s their choice, then they should embrace it, and the Conservative US Pageant is the perfect place to showcase conservative women of all ages and to celebrate conservatism in America.’
According to former husband Randy, Lindsey has always carried a certain magnetism.
‘When Lindsay was dancing she had men wrapped around her finger,’ he once said.
‘Sports stars, celebrities, politicians, lawyers, doctors. You name it, no one was immune from her charm. How do I know? It was my club she danced in. She left her first husband to be with me.
‘I was number two and three. She’s married three more times since then [now four], each time climbing the social ladder.’
Donald Trump and Faldo pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in 2009; Sir Nick is still able to ring him at any moment
Sir Nick and Lindsey have a public Instagram page where they share their various adventures together. Many of them are golf, farm, or hiking-related.
They did also share a snap from Windsor in September, when they were invited to the castle during Trump’s second state visit to Great Britain. Windsor Castle is also where the late Queen Elizabeth II knighted Faldo in 2009.
Not that you’ll find him and Lindsey hanging around the UK too much – he thinks it’s on the decline.
‘We walked down Eton high street because we used to live near there and it’s looking a bit rough,; he told The Telegraph last year.
‘You know, things have gone down. The shops are closing, there’s boarded up windows and I’m disappointed to see that the country is struggling, to be honest. And, I mean, that’s a shame.
‘You’ve got to say the attitude [in the US] is good. It’s back to the good old psychology of life. You’ve got to be seeing good things and saying good things. Self-hypnosis is really powerful, you know?’
It’s perhaps easier to self-hypnotise when you’re vastly wealthy and have friends in some of America’s highest places. The links between him and Trump go back many years.
It was reported in January 2013 that billionaire businessman Trump had hired Faldo to redesign his Red and Gold golf courses at the Doral resort and spa in Miami which he had bought the previous year.
Faldo described their partnership, four years before Trump was first inaugurated as President in January 2017, as ‘entertaining’ and added that it was ‘delightful’ to work for him.
Trump still calls him ‘Nicky’ and the golf icon is welcome to pick up the phone any time. If, of course, he isn’t riding round the ranch with Lindsey.
