Open 2009: Lyle is out of order, says his old friend Gallacher

Published on Tuesday 14 July 2009 22:49

BERNARD Gallacher, a longstanding friend who shared a house with Sandy Lyle when his compatriot won the 114th Open at Royal St George's in 1985, has described Lyle's personal attack on Colin Montgomerie as "a bit twisted".

The three time Ryder Cup captain was taken aback when he picked up Tuesday morning's newspapers and perused the stories detailing Lyle's claim of 'cheating' as well as more personal gripes. Monty was aloof, he didn't return calls, and he sent Sandy a letter Lyle reckoned was ghosted by Guy Kinnings, the Ryder Cup captain's manager.

The pettiness of some of the charges, not to mention the enormity of the cheating claim, left Gallacher to brand Lyle's conduct when it came to Montgomerie as way below the belt. Whether or not Lyle felt hurt at being overlooked for both the captaincy and a vice-captain's berth, this was no excuse for lashing out at Monty.

"Sandy's spent his whole life being a nice guy and now he's in grave danger of spoiling it," said Gallacher. "He's certainly spoiling it by saying things like this. People will see this as bitterness at him not getting the captaincy. It's sad because Sandy is a really nice guy and never harboured any hatred for anyone in the past that I've known. He's a bit twisted on this one.

"Sandy, unfortunately, is bitter at not being given the captaincy and what he has now done is below the belt for me. Monty's explanation for what happened in the Indonesian Open was accepted by a forthright committee and, at that point, everyone should have put the matter behind them. I am sorry to say it, but Sandy is out of order. It is very poor what he has done, especially in the week of the Open championship, and someone really needs to give Sandy some advice.

"Sandy's not coming out of this very well. The reason he was not given the captaincy is that they have gone back to someone who is in touch with the players. I don't think it is a personal thing against Sandy at all. This is certainly not going to do Sandy much good for the future. Some advisor or mentor needs to sit down with Sandy and tell him that he's got to get over this."

Peter Alliss, the revered BBC TV commentator who was also once overlooked for the post of Ryder Cup captain, echoed Gallacher's sentiment that Lyle's outburst was out of character.

"I am surprised at Sandy but he is obviously disappointed he was not made Ryder Cup captain, but so am I," he reflected. "There is no doubt that Sandy Lyle should have been, could have been, might have been the Ryder Cup captain – he certainly had the qualifications – but it is always ugly when golfers get involved in those sort of conversations because the old saying is: You can call anybody anything but a cheat at golf.

"Footballers foul each other and say things. In golf you cannot shout at the top of someone's backswing or kick the ball in the hole, I know that. But if you get a reputation for being a bit shady, and over the years there have been a few who have flirted with the wind, fellow pros talk. The stigma stays with you. People still cart up things which happened years ago with Vijay Singh. They regurgitate it years on. And (around] Gary Player there have been little insinuations. It's unpleasant and is not associated with the game."

Alliss knows the charge of cheating and the damage done to a player's reputation, as well as the game itself, is different in golf from other sports. "If you are a fighter and you have stuck your thumb in somebody's eye, or dear old Henry Cooper with Muhammad Ali and he knocked Ali down and slashed the glove. (Ali] cheated to give himself time and then he beat Cooper, all those things are forgotten in the general. But in golf, if you have done anything, (it's different]. I remember a young amateur boy in Scotland 30 years ago, and they talk about him today." (Dunbar's David Robertson was banned after being accused of moving his ball during an Open qualifier.]

Not that the broadcasting sage didn't think Monty had a case to answer in Jakarta.

"It would appear the ball didn't go back in the place that he left it. It was fairly obvious. But he would know. Montgomerie would know and he has to live with that. That is the killer with golf being a pedestrian game."

Asked if he thought Monty's captaincy might yet be tainted by the fall-out from Jakarata-gate, Alliss was sanguine about the media attention which surrounds the biennial match. "I saw the picture and it certainly looked very strange. If one of you boys are in the mood, it will be brought up. It will depend who is in the mood."

European Tour chief executive George O'Grady was unavailable for comment yesterday, although when former player Gary Evans also criticised Montgomerie after Jakarta, O'Grady accused Evans of being "enormously disrespectful."

Meanwhile, Paul Lawrie, the past Open champion who is a member of the European Tour's influential 15 man Tournament committee, believes his predecessors made an error of judgment by not honouring Sandy Lyle as Ryder Cup captain ten years ago.

A member of the European team which narrowly lost the match under Mark James' captaincy at Brookline in 1999, Lawrie reckons it was a mistake the two-time major winner wasn't asked to lead the way in Boston.

"I'm on the committee, but I don't think it's our fault that he's not the captain," said the Aberdonian. "I think it's the committee's fault from before that. In my opinion, 1999 is when he should have been captain."

Although he didn't want to become embroiled in the rights and wrongs of Lyle's remarks, Lawrie was sorry the former Masters and Open champion was overlooked for one of the game's most prized honours. "I think it's a great pity that, more than likely, now Sandy will not be the captain," he added.

That said, Lawrie continues to feel the unanimous decision of the Tournament committee to select Montgomerie as captain in 2010 was the right one.

"I haven't seen the articles ( in which Lyle accused Monty of 'cheating'] yet because I've been out playing," explained the major winner. "I have no comment to make on Sandy's comments. But I think we got the best man for the job for this time, in 2010. Monty is still on Tour. He is competitive. Sandy was based in America playing the Champions Tour over there, more than over here. Monty wanted the job, so I think we got the best man at this point in time. I'm not saying Sandy wouldn't be a good man for the job, but we've got the right man for next year."

With three Scots already in the side – Montgomerie, Lawrie and Andrew Coltart – and Sam Torrance as vice-captain, it would have needed a very large Saltire to cover the Tartan contingent at Brookline if Lyle had been made captain.

For whatever reason, James was the preferred choice at the time and the laconic Englishman carried the can for running his best horses into the ground over the first four sessions and running out of steam against the USA in Sunday's singles.

Q & A: WHAT HAPPENED IN JAKARTA

Q: How did Monty come to be embroiled in controversy?

A: At the Indonesian Open in March 2005, the Scot misplaced his ball the day after play had been stopped because of a thunderstorm when he was in danger of missing the cut. The European Tour decided no punishment should be handed out when video evidence, seen after the tournament, proved he had played from the wrong spot. Then Dane Soren Kjeldsen made an official complaint.

Q: So how did Monty deal with this?

A: After admitting he had played from the wrong spot, he gave his prize money, 24,000, to the Tsunami Appeal.

Q: The row rumbled on – why?

A: English golfer Gary Evans was publicly critical of Montgomerie, saying that the "integrity of our game cannot continue to be compromised in such fashion." Evans was later made to apologise to the Tournament committee after he undermined the authority of the Tour.

Evans then recalled Montgomerie's short putt at the Volvo Masters in Spain in 2002 when there was uncertainty over whether he touched the ball when it was still moving. "There has been smoke around Monty before," Evans claimed.

Montgomerie himself was upset by the comments.

"I was very surprised and very hurt. I thought the issue was dead and buried. I think everyone is disappointed about what has happened."