Senior Open: Sandy Lyle left to rue late lapses

Sandy Lyle during the first round of The Senior Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Picture: Getty

Five years on, he’s still not trying to come up with any, either, for his decision to walk off the same course after just ten holes in the Open Championship.

Accused by some of throwing in the towel that day – he was 11-over-par in foul conditions – Lyle insisted he’d never tried to hide the truth, unlike Rory McIlroy, for instance, when he walked off in the Honda Classic earlier this year and initially put it down to “not being in a good place mentally” before it was claimed later that he’d been suffering from severe toothache.

In Lyle’s case, it was a sore hand that led to his withdrawal, which attracted far more attention, for example, than American Rich Beem, the 2002 USPGA champion, ending his event that year after just 12 holes and, though considered for the post at Gleneagles next year, is widely believed to have been a contributing factor in Scotland’s two-times major winner being overlooked for the Ryder Cup captaincy.

“I can sleep at night, that’s the main thing,” said Lyle after completing all 18 holes on this occasion and signing for a level-par 70 to sit handily placed, three shots off the lead, in the last of the season’s over-50s majors on the Lancashire links. “I think it’s better to be up front than trying to make excuses.

“There were other guys that walked in that year and never got any coverage at all. I made what I thought was a good decision at the time because my right hand was not in good spirit, having had trouble with it for ten years, as previous caddies that I’ve had would tell you if you spoke to them.

“It wasn’t arthritis. It was something in my swing that was irritating it. The weather and the cold and a couple of skanky shots in the first five or six holes didn’t help it. It was sore and, at 11-over after ten holes, I decided that was more than enough as I didn’t want to spoil my chances for the following week, which was my first Seniors Open at Troon. I didn’t want to irritate it even more.”

Injury-free on this occasion, Lyle laughed about getting all the way around on a day when he opened with two birdies in his first four holes and shared the lead with six holes to play until a double-bogey 6 at the 13th took the wind out of his sails. “I now know what the last eight holes look like now,” he joked, claiming his overall play had merited a better return than level-par.

“It’s probably the best I’ve played in a long time as far as positional play goes and if my wedge play had been a bit sharper and the putting a bit better, five or six-under was on the cards,” added the 55-year-old, whose “blemish” at the 13th stemmed from a pushed drive into the rough, where Lyle thought he had a decent lie but pulled a 7-iron into a fairway bunker.

A decision to “ditch” his Black Swan – a putter with a head as big as a frying pan that he’d been using since The Masters earlier in the year – had paid dividends until he missed holeable putts at the last two – from no more than three feet for birdie at the 17th then a six-foot par effort at the last.

“I like the Black Swan as it gets you lined up better, but I thought I’d make a change after The Open and put the short one in the bag this week,” he said. “The one at the 17th was the only short one I’d missed all day and that was a bit annoying after hitting two nice shots in there. Then, at the 18th, I hit a lovely second shot but landed it in probably the only spot where it couldn’t release to the pin. It actually came backwards. It should have been an easy chip from there but I left it six feet short and missed the putt.”

If only he’d been able to finish as playing partner Bernhard Langer did. One-over with four to play, the 2010 winner birdied the 16th, 17th and 18th as he posted a two-under 68. Langer led heading into the final round at Turnberry 12 months ago but, in a rare show of German inefficiency, he slipped to sixth behind Fred Couples as the American got his hands on the over-50s Claret Jug.

“It hurt at the time because I was playing very good golf the whole week and then it just kind of unravelled over the last few holes with some bad shots and bad breaks,” he admitted. With a brace of wins under his belt already this season on the Champions Tour, he’s aiming to get himself back in the same  position again this weekend.

“I wasn’t happy with my first seven or eight holes today as I had a number of chances and just didn’t putt well,” added Langer. “But I kept out of these pot bunkers and out of the long grass and finally the putter started working at the end.”