Happy 65th Birthday Scottish Golfer Sandy Lyle born on on February 9th 1958.
Born Shrewsbury, England but considered Scottish, Lyle was one of Europe’s top golfers during the 1980s. He is one of the golfers credited with breaking American domination of golf on the world stage.
Lyle was introduced to golf as soon as he would walk. His father, Alex, was a teaching professional at Hawkstone Park GC and had his son playing with miniature clubs from the age of 3. Lyle had an outstanding amateur career culminating in victory in the English Amateur Stroke Play championship in 1975 and 1977. He also served on the Walker Cup squad twice.
He turned professional in 1977 and was nominated Rookie of the Year in his first full season a year later. His first professional victory was the 1978 Nigerian Open. As a player, Lyle is renowned for his cool temperament and focus. However, his form is not always consistent and tends to play either exceptionally well or exceptionally bad.
Lyle won his first Major, the Open, in 1985. Perhaps the highlight of his career was victory in the 1988 US Masters. He was the first non-American to win the event, a victory made sweeter because of the intense competition between America and Europe in all aspects of golf. Lyle has also played on 5 Ryder Cup squads and represented Scotland 3 times in the World Cup.
On a personal level, Lyle has an amiable character and is modest despite his success and stardom. He enjoys Chinese food and is somewhat of an expert. He is also a keen enthusiastic of motorbike scrambling. In 1989, Lyle’s form began to slump. His last victory was the Volvo Masters in 1992 and since then has quietly retired from the main tour.
On turning 50 in 2008 he played on the Champions Tour and the European Senior Tour winning his first tournament in 19 years when he captured his first European Senior Tour title at the 2011 ISPS Handa Senior World Championship, held in China.
Sandy was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in May 2012, he now lives in Scotland with his wife Jolande and children Lonneke and Quintin
In 2014 Sandy won the World Hickory Open Championship, an open tournament for amateur or professional hickory golfers. Hickory golf is a variation of golf played with hickory-shafted golf clubs. Part of the attraction of playing with hickory clubs is that they reintroduce ‘feel’ to the golf shot. Proponents also claim that hickory golf allows golfers to play classic golf courses as they are meant to be played “I’m delighted to have won my fourth Major,” joked Sandy afterwards.
As a former winner I would have thought Sandy would get an invite to play in majors, but not so, last year in the run up to the 150th Open at St Andrews he was forced to retire injured commenting;
“When you’re pushing on the age that I am now, injuries are always sort of around the corner and you’ve just got to be careful what you do.”
Lyle’s withdrawal came after just one hole of the second round – a double-bogey six at the first.
Earlier in 2022 Sandy became the first Scottish golfer to play in 100 majors, a remarkable feat in itself, although Lyle was completely unaware that he created history. It came in his 41st appearance at Augusta National and the 1988 winner said after missing the cut for the eighth year in a row that next year will be his last.“I was not aware, no,” said Lyle when he was asked about his major milestone by The Scotsman after carding a second-round 76 for a 14-over total at the Georgia venue.
“No-one has ever mentioned it to me. Does that make me feel better? A little bit,” said the two-time major winner. “But I suppose that is pretty sporty and something I can tell my grandkids in years to come.” he added.
Sandy went on to say;
“I think probably next year might be the end of the Lyle attack on the golf course,I think my older son (Stuart) is coming out and a few of his buddies, and I think my younger son (James) is probably coming out, so we're going to be a full family, I think, so I think it will be the end of the day.
I think he will continue to play in invitations and the senior tour.
