AUGUSTA, Ga. — Sandy Lyle, 35 years after he conquered Augusta National, was given his sword again.
As you’d expect, after it was announced that the 1988 winner here would be playing his final Masters, the week ahead of Saturday morning had been sentimental. What to remember? What to experience one last time? How do you wave goodbye? It went fast. Thursday’s first round came. Friday’s second round came. And finality. Lyle wouldn’t make the cut, though he made the weekend, at least for a shot or two, when a storm postponed play on Friday afternoon, with Lyle just off the 18th green, on the left side, about 12 feet away.
He’d been OK with the call to stop play on Friday, perhaps denying him a sendoff, though it makes you wonder: How do you sleep on a putt that’ll finish your Masters career?
“A lot of tequila and a bit of whisky tasting at about 1 o’clock this morning,” he said.
But Saturday came, albeit soggy and cloudy and cold, and yes, that’s a weather description and not Lyle’s. His caddie, Ken Martin, popped out on the grounds at about 7:45. Play started at 8 a.m. As players worked their way to holes, and the grounds still wet and muddy, patrons were held back until a minute or two after the resumption horn, so Lyle played in front of family, playing partners Jason Kokrak and Talor Gooch, and a few folks who risked a run to the green.
“Yeah, we saw them sort of stacking up there by the scoreboard, and I thought, any minute now there’s going to be a stampede,” Lyle said. “But, yeah, it would have been nice if probably a few more minutes and I could have, the crowd could have given me a good sendoff.”
But could Martin alone?
Ahead of the Masters, Ping had made a replica of the putter Lyle used in ’88. Lyle carried it and another putter on Thursday and Friday. He said he took out his 4- and 3-irons. The special blade would be played at the end, and when that came, on Saturday morning, Martin took it out of Lyle’s kickstand bag.
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He placed his left hand on the middle of the shaft and his right hand toward the bottom, gave his player a stern look and handed him the putter. Martin eventually laughed. Lyle kissed it. He knew what it all looked like.
“We thought it would be nice to use it on the last hole from a, whatever, 10, 12 feet,” Lyle said. “And I had it presented to me by my caddie and the old royal, here’s the sword, wipe the blood off, that kind of thing.”
As these things sometimes go, he missed, though.
“Lousy putt,” he said.
But he tapped in. Around the green, about 50 or so patrons cheered, and Lyle waved. But he wasn’t quite done. These things sometimes go this way, too. He made his way over to scoring, did one radio interview, then told other reporters that he was going to go back to 18, where Larry Mize, another former champion who was calling it a Masters career this year, would soon be walking up.
In the rain, he waited. He watched.
Minutes later, when Mize was now finished too, they hugged on the green.
“Yeah, I obviously know what’s going through his mind and it was just a part of a, just a welcome, and also to a new era, I suppose, for the both of us,” Lyle said. “I just think it was the right thing to do. The wives suggested it and I thought about it and said, yeah, I’m going to go back out there and welcome him to a new era.”
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A reporter asked Lyle to sum it all up.
There are easier things to do.
“Cold right now,” he said, laughing. “Can’t believe how it can change so quick. It’s amazing. But, yeah, it’s part of many, many years of playing competitive golf since I was about 15 or 16 years old, and it’s come to an end. I’m sure Gary Player and [Jack Nicklaus] and a few others have all gone through the same system, and Mr. [Tom] Watson and that lot. I knew my time was coming up pretty soon the last few years. And you can tell by the scores that the course is killing me out there. So I went out this year with a little bit of hope because I was working hard on the game to get some sort of game together. But it’s a grinding machine out there at the moment with the length for older players.
“Maybe in time they will have another little tournament going on within the Masters tournament for the over 60. You never know. Play off the front tees. It would be entertaining.”
Back to the putter. We’ll end things this way.
What was Lyle going to do with his new replica?
“Oh, it will go back into the trophy cabinet I think back home in Scotland.”
It’s hit two shots?
“It’s hit two putts, yes.”
