Sandy Lyle - The Man Who Brought Haggis to Augusta National

By Kieran Clark on Tuesday, April 9th 2013
Sandy Lyle - The Man Who Brought Haggis to Augusta National

Alexander Walter Barr "Sandy" Lyle was born to Scottish parents in the English town of Shrewsbury on the 9th of February 1955. His father, a club professional at nearby Hawkstone Park, introduced Sandy to the game at the age of three, and he quickly became a child prodigy.

Representing Scotland as an amateur, Lyle made his debut in The Open Championship at the age just 16. He turned professional in 1977, and was an almost immediate success. Winning the European Tour's Order of Merit in 1979, an achievement which he repreated on more occasions, Lyle quickly established himself as one of Britain's leading golfers. Playing in five Ryder Cup teams between 1979 and 1987, Lyle was a contempory of other great European's Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Nick Faldo. He inspired his fellow Brits by winning the 1985 Open Championship at Royal St. Georges, becoming the first British winner since 1969, but also the first Scot to win a major since Tommy Armour at the 1931 Open. Lyle was one of the world's leading players, and without question one of the most naturally gifted players to have ever emgered from Europe. As Seve Ballesteros once remarked; "Sandy was the greatest God-given talent in history. If everyone in the world was playing their best, Sandy would win and I'd come second."

Lyle brought such prowess to the PGA Tour in America, winning four Tour events, including the 1987 Players Championship. However, it was on Sunday, 10th of April, 1988, that Sandy Lyle forged his place among golf's most legendary moments with one 7-iron shot from the fairway bunker on the 18th at Augusta National.

Lyle had come into the 52nd Masters Tournament in blistering form, having won the Greater Greensboro Open just days earlier in North Carolina. However, no one had ever won the Masters coming off a win in the previous week. Victories on Tour are exhausting, physically and emotionally, and at the time Lyle remarked: "Winning in such a tension-packed day has drained me a little, but I feel ready for Augusta."  And ready he was.

Following an opening round of 71, Lyle found himself in a tie for third, just two shots back of Larry Nelson and Robert Wrenn. Scoring conditions were difficult that day, and just six players broke par. Lyle himself made five birdies during his round, and certainly left the property feeling content with his day's work, particularly considering many of the other pre-tournament favourites found themselves considerably over-par.

Thankfully for the players, Friday would bring much better weather, and scoring was lower in the second round as a result. Lyle took advantage and made his move, posting a round of 67 that contained six birdies, bolstered early by a stunning run of five threes in six holes on the front nine, as he reached the turn in just 33 strokes. Reflecting on that brilliant start, Lyle remarked: "I couldn't have asked for a better or more solid start."

Sandy Lyle would go into Masters Saturday with a two-shot-lead over 27-year-old, two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Mark Calcavecchia.

On Saturday, once again, as he did the previous day, Lyle started superbly and found himself standing on the 13th with a four-shot lead over Calcavecchia. However, Lyle conspired to make bogey on the Par 5, and after dropping another shot at the 16th, found his lead had been cut to just one shot following Calcavecchia's eagle at the 15th. But, Calcavecchia dropped a shot on the 17th, and ultimately both men shot level-par 72s and Lyle's two-shot lead had remained intact. However, a talented closing pack had developed. 1984 champion Ben Crenshaw birdied three of his final five holes to post 67, and found himself tied with Calcavecchia, just two back of the Scot. Other former champions Fuzzy Zoeller and Bernhard Langer were four shots back, alongside future champion Fred Couples, with Craig Stadler, Seve Ballesteros and Don Pooley a further shot behind.

A talented chasing pack, and as Lyle witnessed first-hand two years previously, back-nine charges are more than a possibility at Augusta National on Masters Sunday.

Lyle partnered Jack Nicklaus on that fateful Sunday in 1986, as the 46-year-old five-time champion defied all of the odds to make up a four-shot deficit and win a sixth Green Jacket. That day, Lyle fell back into a tie for 17th following a final round of 72, seven shots worse than Nicklaus' iconic 65. Lyle had seen what was possible on this course, and went into Sunday well aware of the situation.

Like the previous days, Lyle started off well, and stretched his lead to three shots over Stadler and Calcavecchia after the 10th. Golf fans all over Britain were watching in expectation of finally seeing one of their own claim a Green Jacket, with children in Scotland being allowed to stay up to after midnight to see if Lyle could become the first Masters Champion from the symbolic Home of Golf. It was all going so well, but danger was not far away as he approached Amen Corner. A stretch of holes that so has often seen a Masters won, and lost. On this particular day, it looked as if the latter would have been Lyle's eventual fate. After a bogey on the 11th, he found the water off the tee on the iconic 12th. Golden Bell is its name, but Lyle it spelled nothing Golden, but rather a double bogey five. Lyle, Calcavechia and Stadler were now tied for the lead.

Calcavecchia then birdied the 13th, and took the outright lead at 5-under, as Langer and Pooley joined Lyle and Stadler, the 1982 champion, on 4-under. It would become a shootout between these five players, as British fans could barely watch the television, not quite believing what they were witnessing.

Langer's challenge failed at the 15th, as the 1985 champion found the water with his second and walked off with a bogey on the Par 5. Stadler birdied the 15th to tie Calcavecchia, but immediately gave it back on the 16th. Back at 15, Calcavecchia and Lyle could only salvage pars, and with just three holes remaining the leaderboard read like this: -6 Calcavecchia, -5 Stadler, Lyle, -4 Crenshaw, Couples.

Lyle needed inspsiration, and he found it on the 16th. His 7-iron was superbly struck, as was the birdie putt that followed to tie Calcavecchia on 6-under. From this point, the leaders all parred their win, with Calcavecchia posting a four-round total of 282 (-6). Standing on the 18th tee, Lyle needed a par to tie, or a birdie to win outright. He decided to play conservatively, using a 1-iron off the tee, but the adrenaline generated by the experience of contending, carried the ball an unexpected distance, Lyle pulled his tee shot straight into a fairway bunker. Was the dream gone, had that birdie at the 16th ultimately counted for nothing, Would he forever rue that double bogey on the 12th, or the failure to birdie either of the Par 5's on the back nine. These questions would have surely went through his head as he approached the bunker, where he found, fortunately, the ball lying on the upslope, which makes would could have been an impossible shot, just that little less improbable. He reached for his 7-iron, the club he had used to such great effect on the 17th, and took his stance over the ball. This would become the defining shot of Lyle's career. Striking the ball perfectly, the ball flew over the pin and landed 20-feet past the flag, but slowly came back to the cheers of the Augusta gallery.

However, even after such a remarkable shot, Lyle's work was not yet done. He found himself with a left-to-right breaking 10-foot downhill putt, recquiring a birdie to win the Masters outright. He struck it, and it never looked like missing, as Lyle raised his arms into the Augusta National sky, with every imaginable emotion flooding through his mind. He was the Masters Champion.

Afterwards, he said: "I have always dreamed of winning here and now I have. What a moment. It's unbelievable. I feel simply great." As did everyone back in Britain, who had finally seen one of their own win the Masters, as Sandy warmly embraced his beloved father Alex, who had lived through every shot, just as we had.

The following year, Lyle selected Haggis, the traditional Scottish dish, on the menu of the Champions Dinner, which would have certainly tested the palates of some legendary figures. 

Sadly, Lyle's career never matched these heights again, as his form left him completely at the turn of the 1990s. However, in 2013, 25 years on, Lyle returns to Augusta National for a 32nd time, with the hope of rekindling those experiences of old. At 55-years of age, making the cut would be a more than acceptable result. But don't tell him that. Just four years removed from a tie for 20th finish, Lyle will be hoping for something just a little bit better, and with nostalgia on his side, he may give us all one last thrill.

However, no matter what happens this week, just like the other 46 players who have done so, Sandy Lyle will always be a Masters Champion.

Scotland's Masters Champion.

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