Lyle: Hero but not forgotten
Scot recalls his Masters triumph
Posted: 9 April 2009
by Paul Mahoney at the US Masters
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Sign of the times: Lyle adds his autograph for a new generation of fans yesterday (pictures:Mark Newcombe/www.Visionsingolf.com)
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Where were you in 1988? It was 21 years ago that Sandy Lyle played the most famous fairway bunker shot in Masters history: 7-iron, 150 yards uphill, on the 18th hole to set up a birdie to become the first British player to claim the green jacket.
“There’s not a week, or even a day, that goes by that someone doesn’t stop me to tell me where they were when I played that shot,” he told me smiling this week, smiling, and looking forward to his 28h appearance at the Masters.
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Looks familiar: Lyle at Augusta yesterday
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“I don’t know that there’s ever been a better shot in a major,” he said.
It is hard to imagine anyone being able to play that shot again as the course has been lengthened so much in recent history but advances in technology mean that even the 51-year-old Scot got close to his bunker last year in a first round even par 72.
Lyle made the cut, along with 1991 champion Ian Woosnam, proving that brains, not just brawn, can still get the veterans around Augusta National.
“The greens have not changed at all since I won,” Lyle said. “They still have all the same shapes and bumps and hollows. But from the tee, the course is totally different.
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Lyle with former champion Fuzzy Zoeller at the US Masters par-3 curtain raiser yesterday
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"The biggest hitters could hit over the bunkers at the first for example. It was low risk because there’s no water. But the way it is now lengthwise, that doesn’t happen very often now. Except that I played with JB Holmes last year and the way he hits the ball, he was making the course feel like it was back in the ’80s. But I can’t imagine doing that now,” said the Scot.
Lyle has always been a fluid, feel player but he does not believe that technology is killing the game.
“Golf will always be an art. Even with the ball flying longer and straighter today, it still needs a human being to get the ball in the hole,” he said. “Technology cannot hit the ball for you. Cars in the 1980s were not as advanced as
they are now.
"Everything develops. All the young guys coming though all have technically sound swings. My father was my coach. But he didn’t have video camera and
computers and all the stats and knowledge that coaches have today. You don’t get players now with quirky swings like Doug Sanders, Eamonn Darcy and Jim Furyk.”
That Masters victory in 1988 added to Lyle’s 1985 Open success, and confirmed Lyle as the No.1 player in the world at the time. He went on to win 17 times in Europe and five in the US.
Lyle remembers that, in 1988, by the time he had finished all the interviews and formalities with the Augusta National members, there was no time to celebrate
his victory.
“When I got back to my hotel,” he said, “I was expecting a raucous welcome. But everyone had buggered off to bed.”
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Discuss this story
Okay, if you're old enough to remember Sandy Lyle winning the US Masters, you probably can't remember what you did yesterday - but for the benefit of this excercise, try. It was such a rare achievement it took everyone by surprise, as that putt rolled down the hill into the cup and we caught our breath. I was watching on TV and let out a yelp sometime after midnight that must have woken the neighbours, little knowing that within three years I'd get a privileged chance to play that same hole and face - and miss - the same putt! ED
Posted: 09/04/2009 09:21
yep, remember it vividly and thought "well if a podgy scot with a funny loopy 3/4 swing can win the masters theres hope for us all" Bob, I'm far more interested in how you managed to play the course and what was it like?
Posted: 09/04/2009 11:05
I was back at my old Uni visiting some friends - we watched it in a jubilant postgraduate common room. I was delighted because I'd missed his Open victory as I was Inter-railing at the time. Hopefully that's sufficiently Guardian-reading middle-class to give penfold ace and Harry P some ammo  
Posted: 09/04/2009 11:59
I remember it so well, he was my favorite player at the time after watching him countless times in the World Matchplay final at Wentworth. A monkey he finally got off his back later that same year, also winning the British Masters for a unique Treble. That Sunday, all his iron shots were straight at the pin. I remember the tee shot at 12 coming up a yard short and rolling back into Raes Creek. The 2nd shot into 15 rolling through the green and nearly into the water on the 16th, then nearly chipping it in. The tee shot on 18 with a 1 iron so he couldn't reach the bunkers (they can't even reach them with Driver these days), the 7 iron "whipped up clean" as Peter Alliss said at the time and then as it landed, "That could spin, that could spin, this could go, this could go. Oh what about that Woo Hoo" Then the putt, downhill 12 feet, just concentrate on the line as the speed would take care of itself. Firmly in the back of the cup and then little jig to finish. Don't know why but that was pretty much Lyle's best year of golf, but he lost it completely after that and missed the cut the following year and never recovered.
Posted: 09/04/2009 12:18
I was sitting on a bus as a very excited 5 year old going swimming with my cousin.... Ooops! That was Kennedy's assassination 
Posted: 09/04/2009 12:50
remember it well sitting on the edge of my seat, shouting at the screen, at the ball, to come on down. what a fabulous night
Posted: 09/04/2009 14:59
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