Youngsters ignore Lyle's experience of Sandwich

Published on 15/07/2003 01:00

SANDY Lyle broke a 16-year British drought to capture the Claret Jug at Sandwich in 1985 but finds himself something of a forgotten figure on his return for this year’s Open championship.

The unassuming Scot ushered an unprecedented era of European success in the majors with the victory 18 years ago which he followed up with a triumph in the US Masters three years later. But he revealed at Royal St George’s yesterday that none of Europe’s emerging young talents has asked his advice on a course he knows as well as anyone in the field.

"They all know too much these days, these young ones," Lyle, 45, said ruefully.

He endured a lengthy slump during the 1990s, but believes his reluctance to capitalise commercially on his major wins has contributed to his low-key profile these days.

"I think it all depends on how you want to see yourself go, if you want to go the Hollywood route and do the commercials and so on," he said. "But I shunned that kind of thing. They were there at the time, but I didn’t want to do it. My golf to me was more important. Unfortunately it went sour for a time in the 1990s."

Lyle has an exemption for life as a former Open winner, and despite having not finished higher than tied 18th in the past ten years and missing the cut four times in that period, he has not completely discounted his own chances. "I’ve been playing pretty reasonably the last few months, putting a lot of birdies on the card but bogeys and double-bogeys too.

"But my ambition here is to win, though if you gave me a top-ten place right now I’d be very happy."

Meanwhile, advance ticket sales for this week’s Open are the second highest on record. The figure of just over 100,000 is exceeded only by St Andrews for the 2000 Open.