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Sandy Lyle, who this week is making his 39th (!) Masters appearance, is a national treasure. Sadly, we can’t claim him, even if he does call South Florida home. Lyle hails from Shrewsbury, England, but is associated more with his father’s native Scotland, which Lyle chose to represent when he turned pro in 1977.

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He went on to win 18 times on the European Tour, including a pair of the big ones, the 1985 Open Championship and the 1988 Masters. The latter of those two titles earned him an annual invite back to the gleaming fairways of Augusta National, where year after year Lyle, who is now 62, continues to test his game against players who hit it 50 yards past him, and then some.

On this muggy Masters Thursday, Lyle’s day started with a 4:45 wakeup call. That’s what happens when you have a 7 a.m. tee time, as Lyle did alongside Jimmy Walker and Yuxin Lee, the Asian-Pacific Am champion. After a hot shower, Lyle slipped on a striped shirt and navy slacks, followed by an accessory that later in the morning would have Golf Twitter delighting: suspenders.

Suspenders! On a golfer! At the Masters! Whoever thought of such a thing?

Lyle said he became a braces believer a few months back when hammers and wrenches were weighing down his “work trousers,” causing his shirt to untuck. Why, Lyle thought, couldn’t the same device be applied on the golf course, where he was having a similar issue with the force of his swing dislodging his shirt? “Very long torso,” he said.

“I don’t use it for a fashion parade,” Lyle continued with delicious detail. “I do it because I am so fed up with my shirts coming out and constantly having to tuck it in. And when it’s so warm like this, and you’ve got grubby hands, you tuck your shirt in, you pull your hand out and the shirt comes with it.”

Suspenders it is, Sandy!

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Anyway, three or so hours later, Lyle arrived on the tee at the par-4 10th, his opening hole. Because of the limited daylight this time of year, the tournament is sending players off split tees. If you know anything about Augusta’s 10th hole, it’s a daunting tee shot that asks right-handed players — most of the pros play a 3-wood — to sling a draw around the corner. Not exactly the easiest shot to execute out of the gate. “Very nerve-wracking,” Lyle said later.

It showed. With mist rising from the fairway below, Lyle addressed his ball, took a lash and … did he top it?! He’d thought he had, quickly looking to his playing partners for guidance on where his ball had gone. “I thought I’d scuffed it up the left side where Rory McIlroy went some years ago,” Lyle said. “It just skirted the trees and it didn’t get down the hill.” In fact, the shot wasn’t too bad. It bled back into the fairway, leaving Lyle 214 yards into the green. His ensuing hybrid shot came up short, leading to an opening bogey.

On the next tee, Lyle bounced back with “an absolute banger of a shot,” but before he could build on that momentum, the horn sounded, pulling the players off the course. Nearly three hours passed before they returned, at which point Lyle strolled down to his ball in the 11th fairway and “slaughtered a 4-iron to the green.” He added: “That was a really good confidence-builder for me; I had some big hopes of maybe getting through the 16th back to level par.” Alas, it wasn’t to be. When Lyle’s tee shot at 16 plugged in the bank by the pond that fronts the green, he was forced back to the tee. Double.

He made the turn in three over, then added two more bogeys on the first nine to sign for a 78. “Six over now is just a little bit too far.” A lot bit too far if we’re being honest, what with 50 players under par when darkness set in, including Lyle’s contemporary, Larry Mize, who while averaging a mere 250 off the tee (we’re rounding up), still managed a splendid two-under 70.

“I’m shattered,” Lyle said. “It was a long day.”

As for the suspenders? Does Lyle intend to grant them a place in his permanent golf wardrobe?

“If I start shooting some scores,” he said, “I definitely will.”

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The post Why one of the oldest players in the Masters field has Twitter buzzing appeared first on Golf.

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The first round of the 2020 Masters is finally underway, after a somewhat lengthy weather delay to start the opening round. The sun is shining, the balls are flying, the caddies are advising, and Sandy Lyle is having a great time.

There’s no better way to start off the 84th Masters at Augusta National than with a little flair — and that’s exactly what the 62-year-old Lyle has done. 

Lyle, the 1988 Masters champion, has come to play in a pair of navy blue suspenders, paired with a striped polo shirt and a black golf glove, and Scottish flag-themed shoes. Not only does it look like he’s having fun on the course with his fashion statement — but Twitter is loving it.

Lyle’s suspenders are not the only fashion flashpoint on Tour in recent months — opinions flew when World No. 5 Tyrrell Hatton shot a five-under 67 on Sunday to win the BMW PGA Championship  last month while wearing a hoodie.

But, in the words of NFL legend Deion Sanders (and now, maybe Sandy Lyle), “If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good. If you play good, they pay good.”

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The post With a style all his own, Sandy Lyle (probably) says goodbye to the Open appeared first on Golf.

The post With a style all his own, Sandy Lyle (probably) says goodbye to the Open appeared first on Golf.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — I’ve always had a soft spot for Sandy Lyle. My first British Open was in 1985, the year he won. I had caddied for a player who did not make the cut and watched Sandy up-close through the final nine holes on Sunday. About five years later, I found myself in the cottage home of Alex Lyle, Sandy’s father, then a retired golf professional who had one main swing mantra for his son: “Make it pretty.” Another of his phrases was “tempo, not temper.” It was another era in the game, of course, and it’s curious to think that Lyle was, in his day, a certifiable power player. In the Lyle-Faldo-Seve-Woosnam-Langer gang, all born in 1957 and 1958, Lyle was the smash-it guy. Ballesteros and Woosie were long, but not like Lyle. Sandy kept it simple, overthought nothing, never said a mean word about anybody, was passed over as a Ryder Cup captain because he was too nice and too old-fashioned, and played his way into the Hall of Fame. He played big amiable golf all his life. Ian Woosnam became Ian Woosnam by trying all his life, from boyhood on, to beat Sandy. Harold Woosnam, Ian’s father, once told me that Ian’s boyhood cry was, “I’ll get you one day, Sandy Lyle!” You could fit two Woosie’s in Sandy’s big-boned Scottish frame.

On Friday, Lyle likely played in his final Open. It was his 43rd. Past champions age out now at 60. It used to be 65. That’s how Gary Player got to 47. Lyle could still get in a future Open if he wins a Senior British Open, and he’s playing in one next week, at St. Andrews. He could get in through the 36-hole one day final qualifier, held in early July. Lyle, after his round on Friday, didn’t rule it out, if he’s living in Scotland, if the qualifier is nearby, if he’s feeling and playing well. Chances are, he’s played his last. He shot 75-76. Damn good golf. He still plays in the Masters as a former champ. His win at Augusta in 1988 came off a Sunday birdie on 18, in the last group. Check this: 1-iron into the fairway bunker, 7-iron out of it to 10 feet, made the putt to win by a shot over Calc. His father said, “If I go tomorrow, I’ll be a happy man.” He died in 1996.

Lyle talked for a few minutes about how he and his gang spurred each other on, “no different than Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler and the rest do today,” he said. It’s not every athlete who can acknowledge the excellence of the succeeding generation, but Sandy has always had the giving gene. He was never wound tight, even if his swing was decidedly inflexible.

He made about a 20-footer on the last on Friday for a birdie to end his day and likely his run. It was an odd, tricky left-to-right putt that was faster than it looked. Big Jack made a mini-bomb for his last moment in the Open, at St. Andrews. He was upset, because he missed the cut by two shots. When Lyle’s putt when in, he was elated. Different guy.

I asked Sandy what Seve would have said about his final putt.

“He would have said, `That’s the way to finish!'” And then he made that right-handed uppercut that was the hallmark of the Seve celebration, without the speed or the verve but with a sincere manner that was and is all his own.

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The post So long, Sandy? This British Open is likely to be Sandy Lyle’s last, unless… appeared first on Golf.

The post So long, Sandy? This British Open is likely to be Sandy Lyle’s last, unless… appeared first on Golf.

A top-10 finish does not seem particularly likely, given his Thursday 75 (35 out, 40 in). Making the cut will be a tall order. Could he win the senior event at the Old Course next week? Of course he could, although that would seem like a long shot, too. He has won only once as a senior and that was in 2011.

But there is another route for Lyle into next year’s Open Championship, which would be his 44th. (Only Gary Player, who has played in 47 Opens, has played in more.) And that is through the 36-hole one-day final qualifier held each year in early July. That is how Retief Goosen, 49, punched his ticket into this year’s event.

In 2002, the indefatigable Player, at age 66, had entered the 36-hole final final qualifier, but a rib injury forced him to withdraw.

After his first-off round on Thursday, Lyle said, “After nine holes, I was very happy. Level par. I wasn’t very happy with the last nine holes. That was a disappointing 75. But with any hope, maybe tomorrow we can shoot a low number, a couple under, might have a chance.”

Might have a chance of making the cut. If he makes the cut, he might have a chance at a top-10. If he top-10s he’s in next year’s field, for sure.

If not, there are other ways.

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